


Every crow learns to fly (eventually)

by TheFandomLife2319



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Asexual!Kageyama, Fluff and Angst, Fuck ton of fluff, Give Tanaka/Kuroo a chance, I swear!, It's not as weird as it sound, Kageyama/Kenma/Hinata gets allll the support, M/M, Oikawa and Tanaka are good senpais, Soulmates birthmark AU, asexual!kenma, hard angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-08-09 09:19:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 52,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7796161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFandomLife2319/pseuds/TheFandomLife2319
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone is paired with someone at birth. Romantic right?<br/>People say that the sky is filled with romatic oppotunities, they're all out there, and, if you fly high enough and soar long enough, you'll find the person for you.<br/>It's a romantic ideal, but Kageyama Tobio has never been one for fantasies<br/>It doesn't help that he doesn't have a birthmark like everyone else, pairing him with a soul mate<br/>Hell, it's not like he has a romantic interest in anyone anyway, and it's not like it really phases him</p><p>.. that is, until he gets put in an extra curricular class about it</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Why is it always me?

**Author's Note:**

> Published: 17/08/16  
> Pretty much an establishing chapter, setting up the world and what's going on

“Why is it always me?” Kageyama mumbles to himself.  


It wasn’t meant to be like this.  
This isn’t what he wanted, it’s not somewhere he wanted to be, so could he please just leave and could everyone forget this ever happened.  
Kageyama walked into the room, sitting dejectedly near the back of the room.  


He didn’t want to be here, in this classroom with the word “SOULMATES” scrawled on the blackboard. Why would he? Why would anyone?  
For some reason, Karasuno had decided to run mandatory workshops to tell kids about the real world. There were workshops on changing tires, cooking, yoga, literally everything. 

They got given preference sheets to fill out, so they could be sorted into groups.  


Of course, this course had gone last on his list, because really, where else would it of gone? He had absolutely 0 interest in soulmates, considering he didn’t have one.  
As the teacher walked in, and started rambling on about the 6 week course they’d be taking, Kageyama started out the window, praying for something, anything, to get out of this class.  


Hinata, however, who was sitting in front of him, was practically vibrating with excitement. What else did he expect from that idiot though, really. He was taking notes and everything, like it was some big serious class with multiple tests.  


Kageyama disguised a snigger, Hinata was taking it more seriously than he did his actual classes.  


I mean, it was one thing to actually talk about soulmates. It was another thing entirely for it not to remotely affect you.  


Like, at least it could impact everyone else here in some way, like, they had a chance for all this soulmate stuff to matter.  


But not for him. He couldn’t have a matching birthmark with anyone, because he didn’t have a birthmark. Not that he went around advertising that, but it was always there, nagging at him. Conversations always seemed to, eventually, turn back to soulmates.  


Soulmates, apparently, according to what the teacher had written on the board, were two or more people, sharing the same shaped birthmark on the same spot, mirroring each other.  
Kageyama was a rarity, one of like 7 in the world, who didn’t have a birthmark. And that didn’t mean his partner didn’t have one either, no, it meant that he didn’t have a partner.  


It was like being labeled asexual while being unable to know what any other sexuality felt like.  


Granted, it was damn near impossible for him to make friends, and he hated basically everyone, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t be nice to know there was someone else out there for him.  


Kageyama groaned softly, hating his current train of thought and just wanting to ignore this whole class. At this point, all he wanted to do was play Volleyball in peace, and maybe get a hang of the new toss he’d been working on.  


The bell rang and Kageyama was snapped out of his self-deprecating daze, pulled out of the classroom by sheer willpower and a slightly unhealthy need to play volleyball. 

***

Of course, because of that class, soulmates and birthmarks were the only thing really on Kageyama’s mind. 

But, I mean, it’s not like he had a lack of things to talk about when it came to the people on his team.  


Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were always talking and just generally around each other. They’d known each other since they were babies, and had also known they were soulmates. They tried to keep it on the down low, but it really didn’t work. They didn’t do much PDA, but they were practically connected at the hip, though a lot of people just took that to mean they were really close friends.  


Daichi and Suga, on the other hand, you knew they were together. The disgustingly large amounts of PDA and general handsy way they were with each other, even in public, was slightly sickening.  


And then there was Nishinoya and Asahi, who you wouldn’t believe, even if you got told. Asahi didn’t really act that different around Nishinoya-senpai compared to other people, but you could see that there was something more in his smile when it was directed at Nishinoya, than at anyone else.  


Kageyama huffed to himself, quickly getting into the clubroom and getting changed, hoping he would miss Hinata and the undoubted rantings about soulmates and birthmarks. So far, he’d managed to completely avoid the topic with his team, and he felt no need to bring it up now.  


He got changed rather quickly and grabbing his water bottle, going to the door  


“... and I just think it would be so.. Like GWWWWWWWWWWAH when I finally meet them you know? Like, someone you’re literally made for, it would be SO COOL!”  
He can hear Tanaka-senpai and Nishinoya-senpai laugh at their kouhai’s enthusiasm for literally everything  


“Well, it’s not really like that...” he hears Nishinoya-senpai say “It’s more like a.... shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!” he says, as if that makes it any more easy to understand.  


‘Damn it’, he thought to himself, his eyebrow twitching in minor annoyance, ‘why did Hinata have to be so goddamn fast in getting here, 30 more seconds and I could’ve just gone to practice and tried to forget this whole ordeal. ‘  


He quickly opens the door and pushes past the trio, ignoring the various “Hello”s and “Where’s the fire?”s that he hears. 

***

Practice is painfully slow, Daichi making them run laps and work on overall fitness instead of actually playing volleyball, much to Kageyama’s annoyance.  


Seriously, the one thing that’s kept him sane all day and it’s taken away from him.  


I mean, he knew today was gonna suck, he did have double maths after all, but this is ridiculous. That, mixed with Hinata’s incessant ramblings about soulmates made practice literally the last place he wanted to be.  


As Coach Ukai finally blew the whistle to end practice, Kageyama couldn’t be more relieved. Now he could go home, wallow in self pity and maybe do some homework.  
Kageyama snorted, ‘Good joke’ he thought, walking with the group to the changing rooms.

***

He finally got back to his locker, getting changed back. However, fate was not kind enough to leave it at that  


“Hey, Kageyama, what’s your mark?” ask Hinata.  


Now, Kageyama froze. 

And if Hinata had been wearing anything but the most innocent smile in the world, Kageyama would’ve slapped him. Things being as they were, he settled from grinding his teeth together in annoyance.  


“It’s not any of your business” He says pointedly, not looking away from his bag as he repacks it.  


“I-But I mean, I can never it see it when we’re changing..” He can practically hear the pout in Hinata’s voice  


“So it has to be somewhere really weird, like in your hair or something!” Hinata concludes, his eyes shining a bit “That’s so COOL!”  


Kageyama can feel his eyebrow twitching as he hits Hinata on the head, the casual abuse he’s grown used to giving out being his default reaction to anything dumb or embarassing Hinata says.  


“I said it was none of your business” He all but growls at the boy. He knows he’s pouting but ignores it in the hope that he can get out before anyone else brings it up, quickly packing up the rest of his bag.  


“Yeah, actually, Hinata does have a point” Tsukishima murmurs, smirking, mutters to himself “Never thought I’d say that outloud..”  
Hinata just looks like he’d found God  


“Yeah, I mean, it’s a reasonable enough question, it’s not like anyone here’s gonna think it’s weird Kageyama, you know about everyone else’s so it’s hardly fair” says Daichi, grinning. Unfair bastard, always taking pity on Hinata’s puppy dog eyes. Maybe it’s because of Suga. Probably.  


“You know, I really don’t wanna talk about this. Can we just drop it? Please?” he asks softly, folding up his clothes  


“But Kageyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaaaa” whines Hinata, tugging on his sleeve like a little kid “It can’t be that bad! Come on! I won’t even make you show us! Pleeeeeeeeeease”  


God damn it, one person shouldn’t be allowed to be that cute.  


“Fine. But only if you show me yours...” He replies. Thinking back, Hinata has never really joined in on the conversation about soulmates, never shown off his birthmark like people would expect him to. He sees Hinata shrug and nod like an overexcited puppy  


“Yeah, okay!” he says, pulling off his shirt like it burnt him or something and turning to show Kageyama his back  


'Shit' is the only thing Kageyama can think. “Just on my shoulder..” He says softly, and, sure enough, on his left shoulder blade it’s unmistakably there. A small, pencil shaped mark.  


At this point, he’s not the only one looking at Hinata’s back, many of their teammates are also crowded around him.  


He feels a pang of regret at agreeing to this, thinking Hinata would've say no. He thought maybe, maybe, he wouldn’t do it and he wouldn’t have to tell them.  
He also feels a bit upset about seeing the mark, but he puts that down to not wanting to tell everyone. But hey, today was a shit day, he already knew that.  


Everyone was suddenly commenting on what it could mean and similar marks they’d seen, getting Hinata really riled up.  


Eventually he put his shirt back on and Kageyama felt a hint of what seemed like disappointment.  


However, he got no time to question this feeling as he was asked the dreaded question:  
“So, what about yours?”  


Hinata looked so damn innocent and nice and sweet in that moment, god damn it.  
“I.. I don’t have one” He said softly, clenching his fists at his sides.  


Hinata blinked and the room went quiet  


“You don’t... have one?” asked Hinata, sounding confused.  


All Kageyama could do was nod. The room was silent, as if trying to process this.  


“Well what’re the odds! Me either!” bellows Tanaka from the other side of the room, coming over to slap him on the back in what was supposed to be a friendly way, but hurt more than comforted him.  


Tanaka-senpai, always trying to diffuse the tension. “So, how about I take Mr. No mark here outside and we can bond over similar romance-less lives” He says dramatically, sounding like he’s joking, but Kageyama can hear the serious undertones to his voice.  


Kageyama could do little but nod, shaking slighty and letting Tanaka guide him outside.


	2. Tanaka is a good senpai

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Published 18/08/16  
> Hinata can't handle the truth and Tanaka is a good senpai

So he stood outside,Tanaka standing next to him with a hand on his back.  


He wasn’t crying. He wasn’t shaking. He wasn’t panicking. Nope. He wasn’t doing any of those things. Why would he? It wasn’t even that important.  


They were sitting at the railing, arms and legs through the gaps and looking out over the town at the night sky.  


“We.. we can talk about it if you want..” he heard Tanaka-senpai say gruffly, not really looking at him. This wasn’t really his strong suit, but it was kinda nice to see that he cared.  


But still, Kageyama shook his head, wiping his cheeks. Not from tears. From sweat from practice. Yeah. That.  


“Well if you won’t talk, just listen then” Tanaka-senpai said, clearing his throat “I wasn’t saying that earlier to make you feel better, I really don’t have a birthmark”  
Kageyama blinked and looked up at his senpai  


“But... you’re always talking about girls and stuff...” he says, frowning. Tanaka chuckles  


“Well yeah. I’ll get back to that in a minute. Let me ask you something else first. Why do you think, if people are made for each other, why do they cheat on each other?” he asks him, looking out to the night sky.  


He blinks. He’d never really thought about it.  


After a few seconds of silence, Tanaka smiles  


“Yeah, I didn’t really think about it much either. But you wanna know what I think? I think it’s because people share birthmarks, but that means they’re destined to be together at birth. But all the things that happen in life, they can take you away from the person you would otherwise be. Life can change your priorities, and goals, and personality. So those two people aren’t always as compatible as they would otherwise be. Those birthmarks, they limit people in who they think it’s okay to love.” he says, looking sadder and wiser than Tanaka had any right to. 

He turns to look at Kageyama.  


“But us, we don’t have that limitation. We’re not supposed to love anyone, there’s no single person we’re supposed to fall in love with, and I think that makes us more human than everyone else. We don’t have that link to one person, we can fall in love with as many people, as many times as we want.” Tanaka shrugs “But it also means that other people will never really love us back, because they’ll never really let themselves love us, they’ll always be searching for that other person, the person they share a birthmark with.” He sighs softly and shakes his head, and Kageyama can see a ghost of a smile on his lips.  


They both stay silent for a minute, lost in their own heads and the deep, meaningful words that Tanaka had just seemingly crafted from thin air.  


“Did you get put in that same soulmates class as Hinata?” Tanaka asks, finally breaking the silence.  


Kageyama nods with a frown  


“Yeah.. I put it last though and it really annoys me. It’s basically pointless for me, isn’t it?” he says softly, looking at his hands.  


Tanaka shakes his head, putting his arms behind him and leaning back  


“Yeah same thing happened to me last year, can’t say I was too pleased either. But, pay attention to it, yeah? It’s not as bad as you think it is, and I can promise you’ll learn some things out of it.. Probably” he says, flashing Kageyama his signature grin.  


Kageyama reluctantly nods, looking over at Tanaka. He jumps up and stretches  


“Come on Kageyama, we can’t keep you away from little Hinata much longer. We both know he’ll be waiting for you in the club room.”  
Kageyama reluctantly agrees, getting up with him  


“Yeah, I know.... And thanks Senpai..” he says softly, watching as Tanaka’s eyes light up with the ‘Senpai’ and smiling slightly at his reaction.

***

Hinata wasn’t waiting inside. But Nishinoya and Asahi were.  


And so were Daichi and Suga.  


And some of the alternate second years.  


Kageyama blinked as he followed Tanaka-senpai back into the room, only really expecting to see Hinata, and maybe Nishinoya-senpai.  


Of course, the room went silent when they walked in, what else did he really expect at this point anyway.  


But Nishinoya-senpai, basically Tanaka’s better half at this point, barrelled towards Tanaka, literally a mess  


“DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE!! You’re so brave and amazing and I MISSED you! Are you okay? I got Asahi to go buy chocolate and ice cream and chips for you for when you came back! Dude talk to me, are you okay?!”  


Kageyama just looked like a deer in headlights while he watched the scene in front of him.  


Tanaka laughed  
“Dude! I couldn’t ask or more! Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, calm down” he said, laughter clear in his tone.  


Nishinoya suddenly took on a very serious tone and pulled back from his tackle of Tanaka  


“You sure? I mean, are you actually okay with everyone knowing?” he heard Nishinoya-senpai all but whisper. Tanaka just nodded with a grin  


“Uh huh. It’s fine ‘Noya” Nishinoya-senpai grinned at this and dragged him over to Asahi , talking animatedly about god-knows-what.  


Kageyama stood by the door, seemingly forgotten, until Suga pushed Daichi towards the door with a less than happy look on his face. 

At this point, Kageyama was prepared for the worst.  


“Uh, hey Kageyama, h-how’s it going?” asked Daichi, looking more awkward than usual, while Suga was watching him like a hawk  


“I-I’m fine. Where’s Hinata? Tanaka said he’d probably still be in here...” he asked, looking around and not seeing Yamaguchi or Tsukishima’s stuff either.  


“U-uh, w-well, after Tanaka took you outside, Hinata kinda ran off and Yamaguchi ran after him. And then Tsukishima went after them both with everyone’s stuff, muttering about being tied to ‘an overly concerned idiot’” explained Daichi, still looking kinda scared.  


“Well, I’d better get my bag and go home, it’s getting late after all...” says Kageyama, stepping around Daichi. As he does, he feels a hand on his arm, probably tighter than it needs to be, and can see that Suga’s glare has hardened on Daichi  


“B-before you go, I just wanna say sorry for earlier and pushing you into that. I d-didn’t think and I know it was wrong to p-pressure you” he says, seeming too uptight and awkward for this to actually be Daichi’s idea.  


Kageyama just nods  


“It’s fine, I know you didn’t mean it like that. You’re just extremely susceptible to puppy dog eyes” he says with a slight grin.  


Daichi turns a slight shade of pink, but lets go of Kageyama’s arm and relaxes a bit, nodding  


“See you at practice tomorrow?” Daichi quickly asks and Kageyama nods while picking up his bag  


“Where else would I be?” he ask rhetorically, seeing Daichi relax slightly in relief and walk back over to Suga. He watches as Daichi takes Suga’s hand and they start talking, slowly smiling at each other.  


‘Well, that’s all I can take for today, home time for me I think’ Kageyama thinks, quickly leaving the club room and heading home for a completely normal, uneventful night

***

Of course, at school the next day, Hinata was walking on eggshells around him, that is, if he stayed around him long enough to say more than few words.  


In homeroom, Hinata was late and didn’t say a word to Kageyama. They didn’t even bump into each other at the gates for their usual morning race.  


At recess Hinata bolted straight for Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, ignoring Kageyama completely. At lunch, Kageyama tried to get his attention  


“Hey, shorty. What’s up with you today?” he asks, looking at him with a frown  


“What? N-nothing, what’re you talking about Baka-yama, I’m f-fine.” Hinata paled “I-I mean, you’re not an idiot because of no birthmark or anything, i-it’s fine, it’s w-whatever” he squeaks out, quickly ducking around Kageyama and practically bolting to Yamaguchi who was waiting for him by the door.  
Kageyama groans and sits back down.  


This. 

This is the exact reason he didn’t want to tell anyone, because they’d react like this, treat him weirder than they already did.  


Whatever, he’d had a life before Hinata, he’d manage now that he wasn’t around as much.

***

Okay, so he could get through school without Hinata, sure.  


But in Volleyball they were literally a team, and teams don’t function without communication. And the kind of communication they had at the moment was of no use to anyone.  


“Hinata! Get your head in the game you dumbass!” Kageyama yells after the third failed spike. Hinata just nods quietly, going back into starting position, like he’d already done twice before.  


Kageyama’s had just about enough at this point.  


“Dumbass, if you can’t pull your head in, I just won’t toss to you anymore!” he says, walking over to face Hinata and grabbing him by the collar of his jersey and glaring at him 

“Is that what you want? Just because I don’t have a soulmate like the rest of you, doesn’t mean that my tosses are any different! I’m literally no different then I was before you found out! So cut the crap and just....” he realises he was shaking Hinata and quickly lets him go, straightening out his collar “Go back to how you were you dumbass....” he says softly, all his qnger now gone from that sudden outburst.  


Coach Ukai blows the whistle  


“... take.. a 5 minute... break?” he says, frowning a bit as if confused.  


Kageyama storms out of the gym, looking like a near-apocalyptic storm. Hinata stands still in the middle of the court, watching him go as Yamaguchi goes over to him, talking to him and trying to snap him out of it, while Tanaka follows Kageyama out of the gym, jogging to keep up with him.  


“Kageyama, wait!” he yells out, following him.  


“Go back to practice, I’m going home Tanaka, I’m not gonna get anything productive done here if he keeps on acting like that. I might as well go home” he says quietly through gritted teeth, storming up the stairs to the club room.  


“Kageyama, running away from the problem isn’t going to make it better. If you don’t deal with it now, he’ll just keep treating you the same every single day.” says Tanaka, his entire personality seeming to switch to something serious whenever this seemed to become the topic of conversation.  


“He’s like this in class! He’s like this here! What am I meant to do?! Ignoring him worked when we were in class, but when we’re at practice our quick doesn’t even work because he’s so out of it!” he fumes, kicking a support beam on the second level in frustration.  


“Kageyama, listen to me man. It’s not something people are used to thinking or hearing. Especially if they might have a little crush on that someone...” finishes Tanaka quietlly  


Kageyama blinks  


“A... crush?” He frowns as if he’s trying to understand a really complicated concept, which, to be fair, he is.  
“You’re kidding, right? Hinata. Have a crush. On me. That's not a very funny joke senapi” he says, looking and sounding more sceptical by the second.  


Tanaka just shakes his head with a smirk  


“Wow, we knew you were clueless, but at this point, you really are just dumb.” he says, grinning at him and shaking his head. Kageyama just looks at him like he’s grown a second head, which, at this point, he feels like is more likely to be true.  


“I really don’t appreciate your jokes like Nishinoya-senpai” he says, feeling really confused and kinda frustrated.  


Tanaka just laughs and shrugs  


“Hey, it’s not my fault if you don’t believe me” he says, going back over to the stairs and walking down them  


“Now come on, it’s been more than 5 minutes, and Coach will kick our asses” Tanaka says, grinning at Kageyama.  


He blindly follows Tanaka back to whatever may await him back at practice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well yay, we got through that  
> THINGS WILL BE BETTER IN THE NEXT UPDATE  
> I PROMISE  
> (Am sick at the moment so expect pretty regular updates)


	3. Hinata doesn't have a vengeful bone in his body

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 25/08/16  
> Hinata gets touchy  
> Kageyama gets nervous  
> Tanaka gives even better advice!

When they got back, it was just as quiet as when they’d left, with no notable differences. Like, Hinata hadn’t moved, and Yamaguchi was still trying to talk to him.  


Well, I guess Kageyama did notice one thing, it looked like Hinata had been crying. He cursed inwardly, knowing it was because of him.  


He groaned internally, walking over to where Hinata and Yamaguchi stood when Tanaka patted him on the back and wished him good luck. He’d need it.  


He walked over to them, their conversation (aka. Yamaguchi talking and Hinata barely responding) stopping and Yamaguchi turning to look at him. He felt like he was being accused of kicking a puppy, though, when he looked at Hinata’s face, he knew it was far worse than that.  


“See? He came back! It’s fine, he just needed to blow off some steam. He doesn’t hate you.” Comforts Yamaguchi, with Tsukishima awkwardly in the background, seemingly uninterested, but actually watching the scene like a hawk. “Isn’t that right Kageyama?” he says pointedly, looking daggers at him.  


All Kageyama can bear to do is nod in agreement.  


“I don’t hate you.. You’re just an idiot sometimes...” he says softly and gruffly, probably one of the most embarrassing sentences he’s said. Yamaguchi glares at him, as if it was possibly the worst thing to say in the world.  
“R-Really?” he hears Hinata say in a shaky whisper. Kageyama just nods, with a slight smile  


“Yeah, really” he says back softly, feeling more and more embarrassed by the second.  


Geez, Hinata really was gonna draw this out as long as he could, wasn’t he?  


He closes his eyes and sighs, preparing to say something, when he feels arms locking tightly around him.  


His eyes fly open and he sees a mess of orange hair on his chest, holding his arms up above his head in a panic.  


He hears stifled laughter from the rest of the team behind them and sees Yamaguchi hide his behind his hand.  


If he wasn’t blushing before, he certainly was now, red as a tomato he was sure, but he couldn’t find it in himself to push Hinata away.  


Eventually he put down his arms, wrapping them around Hinata’s shoulders and softly hugging him back, earning him multiple cat calls and cheers.  


He’s not sure how long they stayed like that, it could’ve been 2 minutes, it could’ve been 20. Coach Ukai came in shouting about a ‘new formation’ he wanted to try but cut himself off when he saw Hinata and Kageyama  


“Uh, well, I mean, we can.. Save it for tomorrow.” He finishes, not really taking his eyes off the pair.  
Everyone moved towards the door and Daichi and Suga stay behind to clean up the hall, leaving the pair alone.  


“Hey, Hinata, we should probably get moving... everyone else already went home, we should probably get moving” says Kageyama, prompting Hinata to squeeze him tighter.  


“Hinata, come on! I’ll walk you home if we can leave..” He feels Hinata nod, but he doesn’t move. Kageyama sighs and pushes Hinata back a bit  


“Come on, don’t make me carry you” he complains, stroking Hinata’s back.  


“But I don’t want you to be angry at me again...” he hears Hinata murmur, muffled by his chest, Kageyama groans and grumbles, picking him up and walking to the club room  


“You idiot, you’re so troublesome sometimes, geez” he mutters in complaint, putting him down on the benches in the clubroom, getting changed back into his uniform and waiting for Hinata.  


“You’re walking home, even if I’m going with you..” he says softly, watching him. Hinata just nods and Kageyama wonders how much his earlier yelling really got to the boy.  


“Hey, Kageyama... You don't really think I'm an idiot, do you?” and Kageyama almost said yes, but he looked up in that moment and saw the raw innocence he hadn't seen outside a primary schooler, and even he couldn't convince himself that Hinata was in a joking mood.  


Kageyama just shook his head  


“You're no more of an idiot than I am” he said softly and angrily, as if he didn't really wanna admit it. 

Which he didn't. But at the same time, he kinda did.  


God damn Hinata, making him think about such complicated things, that weren't Volleyball related. 

Sheesh.  


Hinata's face lit up as he looked at him, and seriously, if that's all it took for him to look at Kageyama like that, he'd say that anytime, anywhere, in front of anyone.  


...Not that he'd tell Hinata that...  


He clicked his tongue and picked up his bag.  


“Come on, I said I'd walk you home...” He says gruffly, trying to supress a blush. Hinata practically bounces to his side  


“Yeah, yeah, let's go!” he all but yells, back to his over enthusiastic self.  


But he does take Kageyamas hand, though they both pretend nothings happening.

***

After walking Hinata home in relative silence, Kageyama walks home, to his small, empty apartment.  


Going through the mail he finds a care package from his Grandma and some money from his parents for living expenses. ‘Wow‘ he thought to himself ‘It's almost like they care’  


He quickly unlocks the door and goes inside, dropping his bag on the couch and going into the kitchen to make dinner.  


“I mean, this is all life's ever gonna be. Might as well get used to it” he mutters to himself, putting on the rice.

***

The next morning Kageyama has to go in early for morning practice.  


At the gates he finds a figeting Hinata, looking generally super nervous and very unlike himself  


“Morning” Kageyama says, putting his hand up in greeting.  


Hinata jumps (or is that flinches?) in surprise, awkwardly waving back  


“M-Morning” he replies shakily and Kageyama just knows that this is something to do with yesterday. But he just shrugs, that was Hinatas problem.  


“Ready to finally hit some tosses today?” he asks, trying to diffuse the tension as they walked to the club room.  


Hinata just nods, looking determined, but there was a telltale shaking in his hands as he gripping the straps of his bag. But once again, that was Hinata’s problem, not his.  


.... probably  


Hinata seemed to waver for a second, but tentatively took Kageyama‘s hand, like he had the night before.  


Kageyama’s face suddenly turned a very, very bright red and he looked away, but didn't shake of Hinata’s hand.  


“Oi, what're you doing, idiot?” He mutters, not looking at Hinata. 

He can feel that Hinata has a spring in his step  


“Oh, nothing. I just thought you wouldn't mind” he can hear the joy in the boy's voice.  


“U-unless you do...” says Hinata, sounding uncharacterstically quiet and moving slower, loosing the happiness he'd just gained.  


Kageyama was bad, but he wasn't a freaking monster 

“I-I mean, why would you wanna hold hands with someome who isn't your souldmate...” Hinata tries to pull his hand out of Kageyama’s, and Kageyama has half a mind to let him.  


But then he does something very uncharacteristic for him.  
He holds Hinata's hand tighter  


“Idiot... I mind, but if I tell you to stop, I can already hear the moaping. Besides, I'm not the one waiting to hold hands with a soulmate, you are. I don't have anyone like that... So yeah, if it'll stop you from these little freak outs, then I'll hold your hand..” Kageyama says all this in the most unfriendly, angry way he can, as if he HAS to do it. 

But he knows Hinata sees right through him and squeezes his hand softly  


“And the only reason I don't want you freaking out is because you're no good at volleyball when you're like that. Understand?” He tried to sound like a drill sergeant or some angry army person, but, when he looks over at Hinata he knows that he's not buying a word.  


“Mmhmm, just for volleyball” says Hinata, and he's definitely smiling that dumb smile of his.  


Maybe Tanaka was right about this.

 

... not that he'd be telling him that any time soon...

***

Morning practice went better than expected, Hinata hitting almost all of Kageyama's tosses.  


But Hinata’s volleyball inaccuracies weren't what was bothering Kageyama right now.  


Right now, Kageyama had suddenly realised what he'd agreed to this morning, and what it actually meant.  


And that was not good.  


The moment practice was over, Kageyama shot out of the gym, quickly getting up to the club room and getting changed.  


The hell was he doing? Why would he let Hinata hold his hand? Why would Hinata want to? He had a soulmate out there somewhere, someone perfect for him, why would he wanna be around Kageyama, let alone hold his hand, if he had that?  


Kageyama reached up to ruffle his hair in frustration but instead felt tears on his cheeks, and quickly wiped them off, grabbing his bag and leaving the room before anyone had managed to get up there.

***

He spent the rest of the day... not avoid Hinata, but certainly not anywhere near him.  


Everytime he got close, Kageyama would somehow stop the conversation or make up some excuse to get away.  


It's not that he was avoiding Hinata he was just....

..... okay, so he was avoiding Hinata. But it's not like he didn't have Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, right? He wasn't just leaving him alone.  


He ended up sitting on the steps leading to the gym and quietly eating his lunch.  


That is, until his beloved guardian-senpai showed up  


“... and that's when I was like, ‘potatoes?!’” says Nishinoya enthusiastically, like he couldn't really be anything else.  
Tanaka laughs and Asahi smiles a bit behind his hand.  


“Oh my god, that guy had no ide...a...” Tanaka says when he sees Kageyama on the steps  


“Why aren't you eating in your classroom” he asks, crossing his arms as if Kageyama was being a difficult child.  


Kageyama shrugs  


“Why aren't you?” He shoots back, in his monotone voice.  


Asahi meekly raises his hand  


“Y-Yuu didn't want to sit with me in either of our classrooms.. so we thought we'd come out here...” he says softly, like the fluffy marshmallow he is.  


Tanaka rolls his eyes  


“You two go in ahead, I'll catch you in class, or at practice at the latest” says Tanaka, sounding serious  


Nishinoya-senpai nods seriously, the expression too serious for his face.  


“Come on Asahi, let's leave them to their private talk, I'm sure we can go sit outside the clubroom or something” says Nishinoya, grabbing Asahi’s hand and leading him away.  


The third year waves to Tanaka and Kageyama, smiling softly and following his soulmate.  


Kageyama would wave back, if not for the fact that his eyes were stuck on their linked hands.  


Tanaka, being the good senpai he was, doesn't miss this.  


“Ah, so Hinata finally made a move huh?” he says, smiling knowingly.  


At this point, Kageyama figures he's practically an open book to Tanaka, so he just nods and stares down at his lunch, willing himself not to blush.  


“So? What was it? A kiss?” he mimes a really stupid kissy face  


“Holding hands?” he asks, nudging him. When he blushes darker, Tanaka knows he's got his kouhai.  


“Aha!” he says, giggling. After a second he turns back to Kageyama  


“I mean, that's kind of adorable. But, I dunno, how do you feel about it?” he asks, making the conversation all the more serious.  


Kageyama shrugs  


"I mean, it's not like anything is actually ever gonna happen. So I'd rather not get used to it...” he says softly, fiddling with the side of his lunchbox, more as a nervous tick than anything.  


Tanaka rolls his eyes  


“You're taking what I said the other day too deeply, just, firstly, chill. If Hinata wants to hold your hand, there's no reason for it unless he likes you. None. Not one. So yeah, he has a soulmate, but does Hinata strike you as the type to hold your hand, and want to do god knows what with you, and then just drop you the moment he finds his soul mate? Hinata doesn't have a single bad bone in his body, so it's not like he could, even if he wanted to. Want my advice, give him a shot. Hinata doesn't strike me as someone who love somebody by halves. He'll either love you unequivocally, or he'll class you as just a friend, and I don't think that's quite you” Tanaka says. At some point he started standing and now he looks like some motivational speaker.  


Kageyama just nods once, still staring at his box.  


Tanaka sits back down, feeling rejected.  


“What? What is it?” he asks quietly, his head leaning back against the doors and turning to look at Kageyama  


“But it's Hinata. I... don't wanna risk the volleyball team everyone’s worked so hard on, for a possible relationship, that might not even go anywhere.” Kageyama shrugs, looking at him.  


Tanaka shakes his head  


“I swear, you really are an idiot sometimes! He's not going to say no, he's had a crush on you for longer than the last few days you dumbass!” Tanaka was obviously getting frustrated with him. But he was still there. Still trying to talk him into this, what Kageyama believed to be, bad idea.  


But he knew from prior experience that Tanaka wouldn't give up on this. It was more or less his strongest personality trait. So, with that knowledge, Kageyama agreed to something he never thought he would.  


“Alright Senpai, what's your plan?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay!  
> So I'm updating a day early because I have deb tomorrow! Yay!  
> Please leave a comment below! I'd love to hear what you guys thought!


	4. Kageyama can't take his own advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 29/08/16  
> Basically, Kageyama is angsty and Hinata is emotional

It was Tanaka‘s plan, so of course it was literally the last thing that could possibly happen.  
Kageyama contemplated this as he went to his soulmates class, wondering what his Senpai was on in order to conjure up such weird ideas.  


He quickly went back into the classroom, barely reaching his seat before the teacher appered, meaning Hinata couldn't talk to him.  


Okay, so, that wasn't really according to plan, but Kageyama couldn't help but be at least a bit relieved.  
....  
Tanaka-senpai was in for a much harder mission than he'd bargained for.

***

“Okay everyone! The assignment sheets are beinf handed around, it's an indevigual assignment based on soulmates! It's not graded, but it still has to be done!” the teacher drones on in this fashion for a while, but Kageyama can barely hear her.  


The assignment, it was literally all about imagining your soulmate and who they were.  


Well, Kageyama was screwed if he tried to do the assignment, and screwed if he didn't.  


Oh well, it's not like he had much to lose at this point.  


His hand reluctantly crept up, but Hinata got there first.  


“But Miss, what if you don't have a mark?”  


At that point, all heads turned around to look at Hinata and whispers started.  


The teacher quickly quietened the class  


“What do you mean Hinata? You have one, it's in your student file” the teacher sounds genuinely confused. Hinata fluhes and shakes his head  


“It's for a friend..” he says, his eyes flicking up to Kageyama.  


The teacher hits her head as if she were an idiot, which, to be fair, it rather seemed like she was  


“Oh of course! Um, well, why don't you and.. uh.. Kageyama work together?” she asks, not really sure what else to do.  


Hinata nods seriously, but Kageyama doesn't react.  


Kageyama hates life sometimes, really. Like, it tries to do shit like this so they get closer, and then it goes and doesn't give them matching marks.  
It was bloody frustrating, and really, really confusing.  


When he notices the class' attention on him, he nods dumbly, as if he'd been paying attention.  


Obviously this had been the expected response.  


So, as it turns out, Tanaka‘s plan wasn't as useless as he thought it would be.

***

In the last 10 minutes they got time to work on their projects.  


So Hinata swung his chair around before the teacher had even finished, giving Kageyama a huge fright with a massive grin.  


Kageyama rolled his eyes and looked at Hinata as the teacher finished.  


He just seemes to stare at Kageyama, not saying anything.  


Kageyama frowed and waved his hand in front of Hinatas face.  


“Oi. Dumbass, we have work to do...” Kageyama grumbled, getting out the assignment.  


At that Hinata seemed to snap out of it  


“Oh, yeah, um, I was thinking we should work on it after school, but the library's closes after practice and I have a little sister who won't leave us alone...” Hinata frowns in irritation and Kageyama has a very simple solution, perfectly in line with Tanaka’s plan and everything. 

He's just not sure he could do it.  


“Hey! Can we go to your place one day after practice?” Hinata asks, as if it's the most innocent thing ever.  


Which it would be.  


If Kageyama didn't live alone.  


Kageyama sighs and nods  


“Yeah, sure. Ask your mum if you can stay over if you want. It'll be easier than trying to get home in the dark.” Kageyama says, his usual monotone masking his internal panic.  


Hinata just nods with a grin  


“I'll call mum after school and ask. Tonight yeah? Get it done? It'll be done like... VRROOOOM, KAPOW, KABLAM!!” Hinata all but yells, his usual enthusiasm taking over.  
Kageyama rolls his eyes but nods with a slight smile.  


Hinata was gonna sleep over. 

'As friends', he reminds himself, 'as friends.'  


Of course, that doesn't quell his excitement.  


As soon as the bell goes, Hinata shoots out of the room, probably going to call his mum.  


Kageyama shrugs and packs up slowly, heading to practice. 

***

Hinata is only a few minutes late, less than usual in fact, so Daichi barely notices.  


Hinata does a small thumbs-up sign.  


And that's how Kageyama managed to screw up every single toss he made for the rest of practice.  


Daichi looked like he wanted to break something, and Sensei looked like he was about to cry.  


“Kageyama!” bellowed Ukai “Get your head in the game, or you can just run laps for the rest of practice!” he threatened, the evil glint in his eye telling Kageyama that he'd do it.  


Kageyama quickly got it together after that, avoiding the questioning looks from Hinata. 

Tonight was going to be ‘fun’.

***

After practice, Kageyama wished he could just go home and hide in his bed.  


But he couldn't and he knew it.  


Instead, went slow, keeping pace with Hinata.  


“So, what's for dinner?” Hinata asked, and the whole room went silent.  
Kageyama shifted uncomfortably  


“U-uh, I dunno... we'll work it out later..” he says softly and suddenly the team realised why he'd been so on edge, and didn't even remotely blame him anymore.  


Kageyama got changed quickly with Hinata, barely seeing anyone else, except Tanaka and his shit eating grin, which he could ignore.

***

As they walked outside Hinata was his usual concentrated-ball-of-energy self, jumping around.  


Except there was, to Kageyama anyway, one big difference.  


Hinata was being normal, waving his arms around like a lunatic as he talked.  


But he was holding Kageyama’s hand at the same time.  


Kageyama was doing his best not to hyperventilate, but the best he could manage was the occasional grunt and the lack of control over his arm.  


Of course, like always, this didn’t stop Hinata.  


‘Don’t blush. Don’t blush. Don't. Don’t you dare. Don’t blush.’ was the only thought in Kageyama’s head as he lead Hinata to his place.  


This was going to possibly be the longest time it had ever taken Kageyama to walk home, ever. 

***

 

Eventually, when they arrived at the building, Hinata quietened, almost hiding behind Kageyama, but not letting go of his hand. At this point, Kageyama would take what he could get.  


Kageyama lead him to the elevator, but he could practically feel the awe radiating off Hinata.  


Silently, they made their way to Kageyama’s apartment, Hinata just steadily gripping Kageyama’s hand tighter.  


When Kageyama stopped outside his door, he swore he couldn’t hear Hinata breathing, but ignored it, opting instead for opening the door and going inside, pulling Hinata in after him.  


Hinata was grinning like his usual self, just in awe of everything.  


However, when he went to take his shoes off, he paused  


“Kageyama, why’re there only one pair of slippers?” he asked, looking up at him with that innocent look of curiosity that Kageyama had never been able to resist. He shrugged  


“I live alone, my mum’s a company CEO and doesn’t have the time and dad...” he paused for a second, but it felt like an hour, thinking about the man who he'd never met, but still managed to take his mother away from him.  


He knew this thought track and quickly shook his head, trying to forget about it, and clearing his throat  


“Um, yeah” he finished lamely, going back to changing his shoes. Hinata, however, hadn’t yet moved, his head bowed.  


After finishing switching shoes he looked up at Hinata, and then at the pair of guest slippers at his feet .  


“What?” says Kageyama, seeming kinda annoyed, but with a concerned frown.  


Hinata raises his head a bit and Kageyama can see that he’s crying.  


‘Shit, shit, how the hell do I deal with crying?!’ he thinks, sure he looks like a deer in headlights.  


Hinata moved forward, wrapping his arms around Kageyama’s waist.  


Kageyama’s frown only deepened  


“Wha-what’re you doing?” he asks, wrapping his arms around Hinata lightly.  


Hinata just shakes his head, nuzzling Kageyama’s chest, and Kageyama feels wet patches on his shirt, Hinata was a much quieter crier than literally anything else.  
Kageyama just kinda stroked his hair  


“Hey, it’s fine. I’m fine. Nan sends me souvenirs sometimes, and it’s nice enough.” he says, trying to placate Hinata.  


It kinda works, he feels Hinata nod slightly, but he also doesn’t stop crying.  


At this point, Kageyama figures they’re not gonna get anything done and he’s going to spend the whole night comforting Hinata.  


“I-It’s just, family is just such a big, awesome part of my life, I can’t imagine what it’s like without that” Hinata says eventually, looking up at Kageyama.  


Jesus Christ, Hinata’s face makes Kageyama’s heart stop. He looks so hurts and sad, Kageyama finds it hard to believe this was the same boy who was running around in the street cheering, not even 10 minutes ago.  


“A-at least now I know why you’re so g-grumpy all the t-time” Hinata gets out, trying to sound cheerful and upbeat, but only succeeding in further upsetting himself, and going back to crying into Kageyama’s shirt.  


Kageyama sighs, softly stroking Hinata’s hair  


“I’m... Hinata... Okay, let’s sit down just.. Here..” he says softly, sitting on the small step in the entranceway, Hinata sitting between his legs and facing the door.  
Kageyama leans around him and slowly finishes undoing his shoes, sliding them off and putting the slippers at his feet.  


“Put them on and we’ll go into the living room okay?” he says softly, wrapping his arms around Hinata’s middle awkwardly, watching him.  
Hinata lazily slides his slippers on and turns around a bit, sitting sideways in Kageyama’s lap, still looking extremely upset.  


Kageyama thanks whatever gods exist that Hinata wasn’t that heavy, and that Volleyball had seriously built up some muscle for him, otherwise this would be a very embarrassing moment.  


As it was, it was pretty awkward, for Kageyama at least, picking up the younger boy and carrying him into the living room. Kageyama put him on the couch and Hinata gave him the biggest puppy dog eyes when he didn’t sit down as well.  


Kageyama sighs softly but can’t help but grin  


“I’m just going to make dinner, okay?” he says softly, grinning slightly at Hinata.  


Hinata blushes a bit and nods, letting him go.

***

After a bit, Kageyama finishes, just some fried rice and seafood.  
Hinata barely touches his, Kageyama sitting next to him. Instead of eating, Hinata chooses to curl up in Kageyama’s side, not wanting to move. Kageyama just sighs  


“Will you eat something please?” He says softly and Hinata shrugs. He sighs and picks up Hinata’s bowl and chopsticks.  


“What if I feed it to you?” he says softly, putting some directly in front of Hinata’s mouth.  


Hinata responds by leaning forward and tentatively eating some.  


Kageyama tries to suppress the blush he knows is forming, but Hinata either doesn’t notice it, or ignores it, instead focusing on eating from the offered chopsticks.  


“What are you, a cat?” Kageyama mutters as Hinata curls into his side and continues eating.  


Hinata blushes a bit but doesn’t say anything.  


They just sit like this for awhile, Kageyama giving in and wrapping his arm around Hinata as he curls into his side, just like a kitten.  


Kageyama forgets all the possible arguments he could have against this and just enjoys it.  


But, after a while, he remembers why he’s here at all.  


“Um, hey, Hinata? We need to do some work on that project, so I’ll go grab the sheet, all you have to do is answer the questions, alright?”  


Hinata nods, reluctantly leaning away from him.  


Kageyama, on the other hand, gets up and goes over to his bag, getting out the sheet and coming back to find Hinata watching him closely.  


‘He shouldn’t be watching me so closely. I’m nothing special. He has someone out there for him. Why even bother with me?’ he sighs softly, quickly walking over and sitting back on the couch next to Hinata.  


“Um, so, here we go. Here’s the brief ‘Your sexual preference is based on your soul mate. So, for this assignment, you’re going to work out what your soulmate looks like, their job, and their personality.’” Kageyama reads out softly, his hands shaking slightly.  


Hinata nods slightly and curls closer to Kageyama.  


“Yeah, okay...” he says tiredly

***

About an hour later, Hinata had literally outlined everything about Kageyama.  


He wasn’t joking. Literally, ‘black hair, quiet, keeps to himself, oh, and he would be really anti-social and not really have many friends’. And it wasn’t just that, he had to be a ‘professional volleyball player!’. 

And if all that didn’t describe Kageyama, Hinata was basically staring into his eyes the whole time.  


By the end Kageyama was sure he was blushing brighter than a fire hydrant, but luckily Hinata hadn’t brought it up yet.  


Hinata started yawning and Kageyama checked the time, seeing it was about 11pm, way past what he expected the younger boys’ bedtime to be. He smiles at him  


“I’m kinda tired, I reckon we go to sleep” Kageyama says, and he sees Hinata sleepily nod.  


Kageyama grabs a blanket and moves so Hinata can lie down on the couch, covering him with the blanket.  


Hinata quickly snuggles down in the blanket, falling asleep.  


Kageyama quickly goes into his own room, too tired for his own self-deprecating un-deserving thoughts.

***

Early the next morning, Kageyama is woken up by screaming coming from outside his room, presumably from Hinata.  


He’s awake in seconds and quickly runs into the living room, ready to defend Hinata from any potential threats.  


However, all he finds is Hinata panting and crying on the couch  


“Hey, Hinata, you okay?” he asks softly, walking over. He watches as Hinata wipes his eyes and nods slightly. He doesn’t believe him for a second.  


“Well, the couch is uncomfortable enough to give anyone nightmares. Why don’t you come and sleep in my bed? It’ll be comfy at least..” he says softly, watching Hinata.  


After not getting a response Kageyama sighs  


“Well, if you change your mind just knock on my door okay? It’s the first one down the hall.” he says softly, going back to his room, mentally berating himself for being so forward and awkward about it.  


‘Like Hinata would wanna sleep in here with you, you idiot. Why would anyone? They all have soulmates, why would they wanna bother spending time with you?’ he berates himself, knowing he’ll be too worked up to sleep for hours.  


But not 2 minutes later he hears a soft knock on his door. He freezes in confusion  


“C-come in?” he says softly and he forgets how to breathe when he sees Hinata in the doorway.  


Now, Hinata was always adorable. 

It was just a fact at this point. 

But Hinata, looking sleepy eyed, with his hair messier than usual.  


Kageyama’s heart had either stopped, or it was beating so fast that he couldn’t feel it.  


Hinata looked almost sheepish when he came into the room. Kageyama sat up a bit.  


“Y-you wanna come sleep over here? It’s a lot more comfortable...” he says softly, lifting up the covers for him. 

Hinata just walks over and lies in the space Kageyama made, curling up close to him.  


Kageyama lies down again and wraps his arm around Hinata, nuzzling his hair.  


Well, with him right there, Kageyama was sure he could suppress his insecurities for the rest of tonight at least.

Probably

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeey guys!  
> So, it was my birthday yesterday (August 28th) so I was out all day  
> But because it was my birthday, I thought I should give ya'll an EXTRA BIG, AWESOME, UPDATE!! YAAAAAAAAAY!!  
> Expect one more this week!! 
> 
> Also, expect some more cutesy scenes!!  
> (I DON'T DO SMUT!! SORRY!!)
> 
> ALSO  
> 5 COMMENTS  
> 5 BOOKMARKS  
> 43 KUDOS  
> 463 HITS  
> OMFG  
> ASDFGHJKL:LKJHGFDFGHJKLLJH  
> THANK YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!  
> I'll reply to any comments ASAP and I promise, I'll be waiting for them!!


	5. Kageyama's got a heart of glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 31/8/16  
> Cute, fluffy, sweet, awkward moments with Hinata and Kageyama

Kageyama wakes up in a slightly more intimate setting than he'd fallen asleep in.  


Hinata was lying on his side, curled into Kageyama, and Kageyama was also on his side, curled around Hinata.  


‘It's kinda funny’ Kageyama thinks to himself, softly stroking Hinata’s hair ‘He's the perfect size for this.’  
And it was true, Hinata, when curled up, fit perfectly against Kageyama’s torso. .  


Of course, this is when one of those attacks had to hit.  


‘Why’s here even here? It’s not like it matters! Why’s it making him so emotional, it’s not like it matters what it’s like at home! He has no reason to care! Nobody cares, not even my parents care! Why should he care then?!’ Kageyama knew he was working himself up for no reason, but he couldn’t stop himself, no matter what he thought he knew.  


But something quickly stopped him.  


Hinata snuggled closer, murmuring something.  


His name he realised. 

Hinata was murmuring HIS NAME.  


Kageyama swallowed thickly, undoubtedly blushing. 

He quickly moved closer Hinata, watching the orange haired boy.  


Of course, while Kageyama was watching him closely, and holding him close, that was the moment that Hinata chose to open his eyes.  


Kageyama tried to act like he was asleep but he knew Hinata wasn’t buying it. He tried to roll over and pull his arms back from around him, but Hinata rolled over, grabbing Kageyama’s arms and pulling them tight around him.  


Kageyama’s heart practically stopped at this point.  


Hinata’s back was up against the whole of Kageyama’s front, and Kageyama was kind of forced to curl around the boy.  
It was nice. Pleasant, even.  


Also, completely unexpected and fast enough to make Kageyama’s head spin.  


He snuggled closer to Hinata, hoping he could get some more sleep, but doubting it.

***

Kageyama woke up and instantly felt colder, he reached around quietly, searching for the heat that was Hinata but opened his eyes when he couldn’t feel him.  


He sat upright when he couldn’t see him in bed, getting up and walking into the kitchen to look for him.  


Hinata was sitting at the bench with a glass of water and a smile. He was doing something on his phone, his tongue out in concentration.  


‘Well, I could get used to this’ was the thought that entered Kageyama’s head as he leaned against the entrance to the kitchen.  


After a few seconds he suddenly straightened up, realising what he’d actually just thought, and cleared his throat before walking into the kitchen.  


“Morning..” says Kageyama softly, putting on the kettle.  


He hears Hinata get up, and feels arms wrap around his waist, making him stiffen a bit.  


“You okay?” he asks softly, trying to look over his shoulder at Hinata but feeling him rest his head in between his shoulder blades.  


Hinata just shakes his head slightly, wrapping his arms tighter around him.  


“Do.. you wanna go home?” he asks quietly, getting down a cup.  


Hinata shakes his head again.  


“Do you wanna go to school?” he asks, putting a teabag and sugar in his cup.  


Hinata just squeezes him tighter and shakes his head. Kageyama sighs  


“Do you want to stay here?” he asks even quietly, trying not to get his hopes up.  


‘Why would he wanna stay here you idiot?! He doesn’t even like you that mu-’ his thoughts are interrupted by a tentative nod from Hinata.  


Kageyama almost forget how to breathe, but somehow managed to keep making his tea.  


“C-Can I just stay here with you today?” he asks softly.  


Now, we’ve already explained Kageyama’s weakness when it comes to Hinata’s upset/quiet voice. And this, mixed with the almost-death-grip he had on Kageyama meant that he just couldn’t make himself say no.  


“Y-yeah, sure. I-I’m gonna go back to bed then” he says softly, picking up his cup and turning to leave the kitchen.  


However, that was a lot harder than it should’ve been, due to the lack to loosening in Hinata’s hold on him.  
He stumbled a bit and stopped trying to walk.  


“Well, gee, why don’t you come with me then?” he says softly. He just feels Hinata nod and groans, putting down his cup  


“Want me to carry you?” he asks, turning around and Hinata is hugging his front, and wraps his arms around Hinata’s shoulders. Hinata just shrugs and Kageyama slides his arms under Hinata’s, picking him up and walking towards his room again.  


“You know, aren’t I meant to be the one upset, not you?” he mutters as Hinata wraps his arms and legs tight around him.  
Kageyama blushes and tries really hard to ignore it, just telling himself ‘He’s trying not to get dropped. Sure. That’s it. Yup. Couldn’t be anything else. Nope. It’s fine. Sure. Yup.’  


Hinata whimpers softly and nuzzles Kageyama’s neck.  


At this point Kageyama’s brain wasn’t even functioning enough to tell him what was wrong with the situation.  


Maybe later.  


Kageyama put Hinata down on the edge of the bed, well, attempted to. He let go of the younger boy, but when he tried to pull away, Hinata pulled him closer.  


Kageyama reached up and undid the arms around his neck, pulling back a bit to look at Hinata.  


Hinata looked at him and then, moved back a bit on the bed, pulling Kageyama with him. Kageyama basically falls on him, and Hinata moves so they’re lying down, Hinata shifting so he’s facing Kageyama and pulling the blankets up over the pair.  


Kageyama’s blushing darkly but his mind is also completely blank, not even sure where to start.  


“I-I’m sorry for acting like this.. It’s j-just, thinking about you not really having a family, and then imagining what it would be like if I didn’t have a family, A-and they’re so important to me, and such a big part of my l-life... I don’t know how you could live without t-them..” he says softly, his voice cracking at points. At this point he’s crying, but not loudly, not for attention, but simply because he’s genuinely upset by the idea.  


Kageyama sighs softly and cups one of Hinata’s cheeks, stroking it with his thumb. Hinata leans into it and Kageyama wraps his other arm around Hinata, pulling him close.  


“Hey, it’s okay you know. I don’t know what it’s like with your family, what your family contributes to your life, but I’m okay without it. I’ve never had it, so I don’t know what I’m missing” he says softly, sliding his hand up into Hinata’s hair, stroking it softly like a cat.  


Hinata just leans more into his hand, not saying anything.  


Kageyama smiles, watching him act like a cat. By now, he’s not even blushing, he’s grown so used to this weirdly intimate treatment from Hinata.  


‘Which you shouldn’t of!’ he reminds himself ‘He only pities you! That’s the only reason he’s here!’  
‘Well... that's nice’ he thinks

***

They lie like this, Hinata leaning close to Kageyama, both drifting in and out of sleep.  


After what feels like a few hours, they’re both back to staring at each other and not saying anything.  


Though, when Hinata notices, he leans closer.  


“Hey, Kageyama, what would you say if I wanted to be your family instead?” he asks softly, though in the silent room, it sounds too loud.  
Kageyama just blinks at him.  


‘What?’ is the only thought circulating in his head.  


Of course, this meant he’d waited too long and was making it weird. Hinata blushed a bit  


“I-I mean, I know I’m not your soulmate and I know y-you won’t really have an interest in me like that, b-but...” Hinata sounded as if his words really mattered, but in honesty, Kageyama wasn’t hearing very much.  


Kageyama’s brain had stopped functioning a long time ago, and at this point he’s surprised he was still able to breathe.  


“Uhhhh...” Kageyama said dumbly, looking at Hinata.  


Hinata blushed darkly and quickly rolled over  


“Nothing! I didn’t say anything! Forget it! It was dumb anyway!” he all but squeaked.  


Kageyama blinked, but then pulled Hinata closer.  


“I-It wasn’t dumb... I just wasn’t expecting it... ever...” he says softly into his ear.  


Hinata grabs onto Kageyama’s hands, playing with his fingers.  


“B-but.. what do you mean you didn't expect it? Didn't Tanaka-senpai say something?” he asks, sounding really confused.  
Kageyama nods his head slightly  


“Y-yeah... but it's Tanaka-senpai so I didn't really believe him...” he says softly, nuzzling his neck, knowing that he's blushing but not really minding.  


“But now I guess I might have to revise that opinion...” he says, smiling.  
Hinata just nods and scrunches up his face, as if he’s thinking something really important over.  


Kageyama doesn’t disturb him, just enjoying his closeness.  


Then, without warning, Hinata turns over so he’s facing Kageyama again and leans forward a bit, as if about to kiss Kageyama, but stops just before their mouths touch and tilts his head, as if asking for consent.  


Kageyama rolls his eyes and leans forward, quickly closing the gap.  


Now, kissing was not a thing Kageyama had ever done before, but evidently Hinata didn’t have the same qualms.  


He may not of had much skill, but he made up for it in his enthusiasm, and that was pretty much Hinata’s personality in a nutshell.  


‘Maybe’ Kageyama thought ‘Maybe this will work out well, and Hinata won’t run away’  


He thinks this while sliding his arms tighter around Hinata.  


‘Maybe’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY  
> SO  
> Secret time!  
> I'm going to Japan from September 2nd to 19th.  
> This means I won't have anywhere near as much time to work on this, or update  
> I mean, I'll probably get one out in the next 2 weeks, but they may not be very long!  
> And if I don't update, PLEASE DON'T HATE ME, I DON'T MEAN TO, I'M PROBABLY JUST REALLY BUSY AND TIRED 
> 
> So, this is kinda a 'sorry for leaving you guys!' chapter, but there will be more on the way, either in the next 2 weeks, or if not, definitely after that, cause it's school holidays for 2 weeks, so chapters will be even bigger and better!!  
> THANKS GUYS  
> PLEASE STICK AROUND  
> I'LL MAKE IT WORTH IT I PROOOOOOMISE!! <3


	6. Emotions are complicated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 8/9/16  
> Cute, fluffy Hinata/Kageyama  
> Mixed with some Kageyama angst and senpai reassurance from an unlikely candidate

So, first kisses aren't all they're cracked up to be.  


And this one in particular was one of the messiest, due to it's inclusion of Hinata, but Kageyama didn't even care, the fact that it included Hinata just made it better. Not that he'd ever tell him that.  


Hinata pulled back after maybe 30 seconds, looking like an overexcited puppy. 

So normal, pretty much.  


And though it should be annoying, and Kageyama should tell him off, call him an idiot or something, but he can't seem to do anything but smile at the hypo, easily excitable puppy that is Hinata.  


‘But what now? You just kissed! This changes everything. It'll never be the same again.’ the little voice in his head told him.  
Kageyama must've paled or something because the next second Hinata looked really concerned  


“Kageyama? Are you okay? Was that... was that not okay?” he sounded so careful, so small. Kageyama just shook his head, forcing a smile  


“No, no, it's fine.” he lied, but Hinata just pouted and looked at his hands  


“I know when you're lying, baka..” he says softly, the usual playfulness of the insult lost.  


Kageyama drops the smile but wraps his arms around Hinata and pulls him closer  


“It wasn't you, don't worry about it, okay? I'm fine. It was fine” he says softly, looking down at Hinata and stroking his hair softly.  


Hinata nods so slightly, Kageyama can barely tell.  


Kageyama sighs and tilts Hinata’s head back, kissing his forehead  


“I actually rather liked it, but i dunno, could've been a fluke. I wanna do it again and for a bit longer, just to make sure” he says softly, grinning like an idiot. Hinata is looking at him with a blush and, while he's sure he's blushing too, Hinata has never looked more adorable, and that's saying something.  


Hinata rolls his eyes but leans up to kiss Kageyama, sliding his arms around his shoulders and kissing him softly.  


This was different, and like the exact opposite of Hinata's usual personality, it was slow and lazy but extremely intimate.  


Kageyama couldn't stand this level of intimacy after about 40 seconds and pulled back, though Hinata didn't seem to mind, laying his head down on Kageyama’s arm and smiling at him.  


‘What's he doing?! Why's he kissing me?! He has a soulmate, he's got no reason to be around a loser like me! He has someone out there just for him! Why would he need me if he can have them? Or anyone! He's so cute and bubbly, he could have anyone he wants! Why he want to be with a grumpy, angry looking person like me?! Surely he's not that blinded by volleyball that he can't see how useless I am!‘  


Of course, Hinata continued his recent streak of bringing Kageyama out of his thoughts.  


This time, however, he couldn't hide it.  


“K-Kageyama? You're crying...” he says softly, looking extremely surprised. He quickly got over the surprise and shifted closer, looking up at him  


“What's wrong? And don't say nothing, cause that's not true” he says softly, gripping Kageyama’s shirt loosely and looking up at him.  


“Why'd you kiss me?” he asks softly, refusing to look at him. Hinata blushes  


“W-well, that's what people do when they like each other, they kiss... right?” Hinata tilts his head slightly and looks at Kageyama. Kageyama nods slightly and closes his eyes  


“Y-Yeah, but why.. why me?” he asks softly. Hinata shrugs  


“Well, you're so interesting! Sometimes you're like ‘GWAAAAAAAAAAHH!!’ but other times you can be like ‘...Hyumph...’” he says in his usual, Hinata-y, nonsensical way, with his usual crazy hand gestures. While still holding onto Kageyama‘s shirt. But Kageyama couldn't bring himself to mind.  


This tiny, compact, little ball of sunshine and rainbows liked him, the cranky, friendless guy from the volleyball club.  
Kageyama couldn't be happier.  


‘He could though! By letting anything happen between you two, you're screwing up his life, with your already screwed up one! There's no point unless you wanna make the happiest person alive sad.’  


Kageyama hated his mind sometimes, he really, truly did.  


Hinata had noticed this internal debate,though not its contents, at least it's occurrence.  


And so, Hinata just snuggled close, nuzzling Kageyama’s neck like a cat and wrapping his arms loosely around Kageyama.  


He slowly starts kissing Kageyama’s neck, snapping him back into the present  


“You stopped talking again so I thought this might get your attention.” he says softly, innocently.  


Kageyama glares at him but then rolls his eyes, a small smile betraying his true feelings.  


Hinata smiles and lies back a bit, pulling away. Kageyama looks at him with a frown, confused.  


“Something wrong?” he asks softly, looking at Hinata.  


‘Of course there is! You!’ his internal monologue tells him.  


But Kageyama ignores it, instead trying to figure out Hinata.  


Hinata blushes a bit and shakes his head slightly  


"There's nothing really wrong... ButIWantedToAskYouToBeMyBoyfriendIfYouWantToOfCourseButYouMayNotWantToAndThat’sFineToo” Hinata says in one breath, his eyes squeezed closed and face red.  


Kageyama blinks and processes this  


‘He's kidding! He's joking! Why would he want anything more to do with you?! Why would anyone?! He has someone out there, perfect for him, what do you have?! Nothing!’ the voice in his head tells him, sounding almost desperate to keep him in this state of depression.  


Kageyama nods his head slightly with a dark blush, not looking at Hinata.  


Hinata’s just looking up at him like he was god. He looked so happy and scooted closer to Kageyama, nuzzling his chest  


“R-Really?” he heard Hinata murmur into his chest  


Kageyama nodded slightly with a sigh  


“Yeah, someone's gotta keep an idiot like you in line” he ssys softly, grinning.  


Hinata looks up at him with a pout, but has a twinkle in his eyes.  
Maybe this could work, maybe the voices in his head would shut up for half a second so he could enjoy this. 

Maybe Hinata really could be his family.

Kageyama cut his own thoughts off, not wanting to think about anything that deeply right now.  


Instead, he decided he should give all his attention to his new boyfriend.  


‘This won't wo~ork’ the voice in his head teased him ‘If he's sunshine, you're rain clouds. This won't last, he'll find his rainbow soon enough and then what'll become of you? You'll be nothing!’  
Kageyama smiled  


‘A rainbow can't exist without a little rain. So until it appears I'll be here. Waiting for it, dreading it, but I want to spend as long as i can like this. And if that means I het hurt later, I'd rather live now and be sad later, then never live at all.’ he counters back to the voices, stroking his boyfriend’s hair and holding him close.  
For once, the voices had nothing to say.  


Kageyama figured this was a good sign. 

... Probably...  
But he didn't think about it anymore. Instead, he just smiled, enjoying snuggling with his new boyfriend.

***

The realisation hit him later.  


He had a boyfriend.  


He had a BOYFRIEND.  


And not just anyone, no, Hinata was his boyfriend.  


He immediately had to think of someone to call and talk to.  


Tanaka-senpai? Nope, that would end in anger, rage and probably broken stuff.  


Daichi? Nah, he barely knew him.  


... shit...  


Oikawa-senpai? He'd be perfect but... maybe he'dbetter take his chances with Tanaka.  


Before his better judgement could kick in, he got up, so as not to disturb Hinata, and crept into the kitchen, quickly dialing his senpai’s number.  


He picked up on the first ring, before Kageyama could even think about hanging up  


“Tobio-chan! Long time no talk! How’s Chibi-chan? You two together yet?” Oikawa said, his voice full of laughter.  


Kageyama didn't say anything for about 10 seconds  


“Wait, seriously?! What happened?! I need details right now Tobio! Where were you? What happened? What're you two now?” Oikawa all but yelled into the phone. 

He knew his senpai was being over dramatic for his sake, and, though they were on opposing teams, his senpai was still his senpai, and still helped him out. Though in his own, cruel way.  


“W-we were in my bed, he'd found out about my parents and asked if he could be my family instead. And then he k-kissed me. And then he asked me to be his boyfriend...” Kageyama steadily got quieter, until his voice was barely above a whisper, though he knew his senpai was waiting with baited breath, barely breathing.  


“And?!” Oikawa almost yells in exasperation “What'd you say Tobio?! If you said no i swear to g-”  


“I said yes” he says softly, and his senpai goes quiet.  


They're both silent for a moment  


“Wow, I'll hand it to you Tobio-chan, Chibi-chan isn't half bad.” Oikawa said, sounding as if he approved.  


Kageyama blushed  


“B-but -”  
“But you don't think you deserve it. You don't think you deserve him.” Oikawa says wisely.  


Kageyama nods  


“Y-yeah...”  


Oikawa sighs and Kageyama can hear the squeak of his shoes on the court  


“You wanna know what I think? I think that you need to loosen up. Nobody thinks they deserve what they do. I may not act like it Tobio, but do you think I think I really deserve Iwa-chan? I'm a pain in the ass, and I'm too loud. I don't know when to stop and I'm obsessed with Volleyball, more than I ever will be with him. I love him, but I think he could do so much better than me. Proud me, that doesn't know when he's beaten, and refuses to give in, even if I know I'm wrong. No one deserves to put up with that me, the real me.” he says it all rather softly, but Kageyama can hear the self hatred bubbling below the surface.  


“But he does, and he says he's happy with it. He always says such cute things whenever i bring any of this up. And i just don't think i deserve him. But I'll love him. And he'll love me. You don't have to feel like you deserve, you have to feel as if you can accept it, and though that's not easy, Chiba-chan would go through hell for you. So maybe, give him a chance. Relationships aren't just what's going on in your head, it's about what's going on in theirs.”  


Oikawa sounds... not sad, but not happy either. He sounds wise, and kinda injured.  


“Thanks Senpai, that's what i think i needed...” he says softly, looking at his reflection in the kitchen bench  


‘I can do this!'  
“You're welcome Tobio.” Oikawa says sincerly  
“Oh, see you at interhigh! Can't wait to kick your ass again!” he says, the serious mood broken. Kageyama smirks  


“Good luck with that senpai. We'll see” he says, before hanging up.  


Maybe telling Oikawa wasn't the smartest move volleyball-wise, but it definitely helped his budding love life  


'Okay' he thought 'here goes nothing'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! It's been a bit over a week! Sorry! I was really busy and only just finished it!!  
> Japan has been amazing, but super busy and tiring, so I haven't had much time to write! Sorry!  
> I'll put out another one while in Japan, some time in the next 7-8 days  
> Sorry for the long wait, and it's not very long either, but it's the best I could do while here!!  
> Hope you liked it!! <3


	7. Kageyama has feeeeeelings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 20/09/16  
> Hinata and Kageyama have fun kissy-smoochy times  
> AAAAND Volleyball practice  
> Followed by some emotional abuse by parents!  
> YAY!! ( :'( )

After talking to Oikawa, Kageyama makes the decision to go back and snuggle with Hinata some more.  


Except, when he gets back into his room, he finds Hinata sitting there crying.  


‘Well gee, I'm not that ugly’ he thinks to himself, walking closer  


“Hinata? What's wrong?” he says softly, walking towards him slowly. Hinata jumps and looks at Kageyama  


“I-I... when I woke up you weren't here, s-so I thought you'd left cause you didn't wanna be here...” he says, his voice catching when he gets more distressed. He breaks for a few seconds, trying to calm down and whispers the next few words  


“.. I thought you didn't wanna be here with me”  


Kageyama blinks.

 

And blinks again.  


‘What?!’  


“What do you mean you thought I wouldn't want to be here?” he says softly, climbing onto the bed next to him and wrapping his arm around his previously crying boyfriend. “There's nowhere, absolutely nowhere, I’d rather be.” he says softly, stroking Hinata's hair.  


Hinata shakes his head  


“B-but, where were you then? You weren't here and I got worried...” Hinata said, slowly getting quiet until Kageyama could barely hear him.  


“I was talking to Oikawa... he was just telling me that I shouldn't stick in my own head and that I should talk to you instead of just guessing your feelings” he says softly.  


Hinata blushes and nods  


“So, I reckon we catch up on some more homework, and then we go to afternoon practice.  
Hinata pouts at him  


“But Daichi’ll be ma~~~ad” he whines. Kageyama chuckles.  


“Not as mad as he'll be fine he finds out we skipped” he says.  


Hinata reluctantly nods  


“Bu~~ut, I don't wanna do any homework” he says with a slightly evil smile  


“I wanna snuggle and kiss my new boyfriend...” He blushes a bit “Not like ‘GWWWARP!!’ but more like ‘... mmpft’” he says, having the decency to look at least slightly embarrassed. Kageyama blushes and glares at him, hitting him on the head, but it was more of a token gesture instead of meant to hurt him.  


“Baka. We have to do homework,this attitude is why you're so close to failing!” he says, his glare lessening slightly.  


“But, maybe we can do that after we've both finished all of our homework. If it's not time to go to practice” he smirks, getting up and letting Hinata fall on the bed  


...This was gonna be a long few hours...

***

Hinata had lasted about an hour before he gave up on his homework.  


Kageyama reckons it's a new personal record.  


Hinata whines when he tells him as such and comes over to sit in Kageyama’s lap, no matter how many times he tells him to “Stop” or “Find another way to entertain yourself”.  
Eventually though he gives into him though, and moves back a bit so he can sit in his lap.  


He sits facing Kageyama, their fronts pressed together, though, due to the height difference, Kageyama can still see (and do) his homework, which he finds oddly amusing.  


Hinata wraps his arms and legs around Kageyama and rests his head in Kageyama’s neck.  


Kageyama just sighs and wraps one of his arms around Hinata, wondering how long he'd stay like this. A while, probably.  


After about a minute, Kageyama feels Hinata start kissing his neck, but tries to ignore it.  


He needs to get this homework done. His left hand starts unconsciously rubbing circles on Hinata’s back, which he takes as encouragement to keep going.  


Kageyama shivers a bit as he keeps going, eventually dropping his pen and giving up completely on the pretense of doing homework.  


He hears Hinata giggle and pull back a bit  


“You said you needed to do homework. Why'd you stop then?” he says innocently, with a devilish twinkle in his eye  


Kageyama doesn't like that, not one bit  


“Because someone was distracting me” he says with a pointed glare.  


Hinata grins at him  


“I'm sure it wasn't that bad.” he says, grinning  


“Oh, no, it was pretty distracting” Kageyama replies, raising his eyebrows  


Hinata grins  


“Why don't you read to me then? I can make sure you're not too distracted then.” he says, sounding innocent, and though Kageyama didn't like it, he didn't have much of choice. He reluctantly nods his head in agreement.  


Hinata grins  


“Okay, well, start” he says, leaning forward and going back to kissing Kageyama’s neck.  


Kageyama clears his throat and slowly starts reading from his textbook, trying to ignore Hinata and whatever he was doing to his neck. 

But it felt so go~~od, how could he?! Bloody Hinata, whenever he got himself under control he'd do something different, that either made him gasp or made his voice crack. 

Or both.  


Eventually Kageyama gave in  


“Okay, I'm done with my homework” he says, slamming the textbook closed and pushing his hands under Hinata's shirt and sliding them over his back.  


Hinata shivers  


“Your hands are co~old” he whines. 

Kageyama just laughs  


“Payback” he whispers, smirking. Hinata pouts and whines softly. Kageyama pushes him back slightly, then sees his adorable little pout and pushes him back into the floor, kissing him hard.  


Hinata gasps softly, probably in surprise.  


Kageyama smirks and keeps kissing him, sliding his hands into Hinata’s hair and pulling softly, hearing a soft groan.  


A high pitched noise shatters the mood and Kageyama almost growls, grabbing his phone and seeing the alarm he set for practice.  


He groans and pushes Hinata off him  


“Come on, we've got practice” he says darkly, for the first time in his life, hating Volleyball.  


Hinata pouts but nods, getting up.  


... This was gonna be a long practice...

***

Kageyama got up, going to find where he'd thrown his uniform the night before.  


However, while getting dressed, he noticed something on his neck.  


He turned his head, seeing a dark red mark on his neck.  


First he got a blush. And then he got very, very angry  


“HINATA!!” he bellows “GET IN HERE!!”  


Hinata cautiously shuffles into the room a few seconds later  


“W-what?” he says softly. 

But then he sees Kageyama’s neck and he starts grinning, holding in laughter.  


Kageyama just glares at him  


“How am I meant to go to practice with this on my neck?! Jesus christ Hinata, you idiot” he curses  


“Have you got some concealer?” Hinata asks. 

Kageyama shakes his head  


“I'm not a girl, why would I have make up?!” he asks, getting genuinely frustrated.  


Hinata shrugs 

“In case things like this happen” he says simply, grinning  


“Things like this don't happen to me!” he all but growls. Hinata giggles  


“Well, you might wanna invest in some if we're together.” He warns with a cheeky smile.  


Kageyama turns and glares at him, his eyebrow twitching and looking like he's gonna kill him.  


“Just saying” he says, quickly ducking out of the door.  


Kageyama sighs and looks at his neck  


“Well, this is one way to tell everyone..” he mutters, finishing getting changed.

***

“But Kageya~~ama~~a” Hinta whines while they walk to school  


“No, no buts, I refuse to talk to you again until practice is over” he says, walking faster, away from Hinata.  


He enters the gym alone, overly self conscious of the mark on his neck.  


Luckily, or more unluckily, for him, everyone's already doing practice. 

Which is good because no one sees him for a few seconds. 

But bad because when one person sees him, they all do.  


“Kageyama! Where have you been?! What'd you do to Hinata?!” he hears Tanaka yell out from the other side of the gym, slowly walking towards him.  


He stops and blinks when he sees the mark on Kageyama’s neck  


“Or more, what'd you do with Hinata?” he says grinning  


“Why didn't you tell your senpai? I was worried you'd gotten too love sick to even come to school!” he says, smirking and putting Kageyama in a supposedly ‘friendly’ headlock.  


Kageyama growls  


“Get off me! We have practice right? That's why w-I came.” he says, pulling out of his senpai’s hold. 

Hinata walks in, looking rejected and goes over to Yamaguchi and Tsukishima, after looking at Kageyama for slightly too long.  


Tanaka looks between the two  


“Do I wanna know?” he asks, sounding exasperated.  


Kageyama shakes his head  


“It'll be fine.” he says, going over to talk Daichi about what he'd missed.

***

Practice was pretty normal, though Daichi had had the forethought to not put Hinata and Kageyama on the same team. A smart move considering how annoyed Kageyama was acting towards Hinata.  


Though it was just a hickey, Kageyama couldn't help but get really annoyed. Not really at Hinata, but more at the fact that he'd let himself go around him and let it happen.  


He really, really liked Hinata, but he didn't want it to be so obvious to everyone else. He didn't want everyone to know that he, a soulmate-less, perpetually grumpy boy, had managed to snag the brightness of the sun in human form. He didn't want people to know. Because if they knew, they'd also know they weren't meant to be together, and anyone other than him thinking about how long he had left with Hinata was unacceptable to him.  


That, and he was easily embarrassed.  


At the end of practice, Daichi called a meeting.  


“Good job today everyone. Now, don't forget about the training camp with Nekoma on the weekend, let's make as much of this opportunity as possible.” he said, his usual, inspirational tone.  


“LET'S GO!!” bellowed Nishinoya, jumping around with Tanaka and Hinata.  


‘Well’ he thinks ‘At least he's acting like normal again’  


He turns away, going to leave, when Hinata grabs his arm with a usual, giant grin  


“I can't wait to go on ca~amp! Wait, we'll see Kenma!! Ye~es!” Hinata all but yells in his excited chatter.  


Kageyama just smiles and shakes his head  


“Yeah, yeah, you can't wait to see Kenma. Understood. I'll just go hang out with Tsukishima and Yamaguchi” he says, joking, but with a plain face and monotone voice.  
Hinata pouts and wraps his arms around Kageyama and looks up at him  


“You'll always be my favourite though” he says, grinning.  


Kageyama blushes. How does he know this? Cause the whole team goes “DAAAW!!”  


Loudest of the all, being Nishinoya, who jumps up and tackles Hinata from the side, cooing about how cute they were.  


Kageyama rolls his eyes when Hinata starts calling out to Kageyama for help  


“Kageyama~~a!! Help! Senpai won't let go~o!” Kageyama just shrugs with a small smirk  


“Have fun Senpai, I'll see you tomorrow” he deadpans, turning towards the door.  


He feels Hinata crash into his back, which he wasn't expecting, causing them to overbalance and fall onto the floor. Hinata landing on top of Kageyama.  
Kageyama is blushing again (or is that still?).  


He sees Nishinoya-senpai sitting on the floor looking rejected, until he sees the current position they were in, then his face lights up.  


The whole gym holds a collective breath, absolutely silent.  


Kageyama pushes Hinata off him  


"Idiot, pay attention and don't just throw yourself at people.” he mutters, sitting up.  


Hinata pouts, sitting by straddling Kageyama’s legs.  


Kageyama rolls his eyes and extracts himself out from under Hinata, standing up and holding his hand out to a rejected looking Hinata.  


“Come on, we were going home, right?” he says, not looking at him.  


He feels Hinata take his hand and get up, and he can practically hear his smile.  


The spell was broken and now there's just a lot of yelling of “Daaa!”, “Fucking adorable” and, of course “JUST KISS ALREADY”.  


Kageyama ignores them all and Hinata grips his hand a bit tighter  


“Home?” Hinata asks, his eyes shining  


“Yeah, let's go” he replies softly, walking out of the gym. 

***

Of course, they ended up holding hands for the rest of the way to Kagyama’s  


“Don't you need to go home? Won't your mum miss you?” asks Kageyama, his thumb stroking the back of Hinata’s hand.  


Hinata shrugs  


“I was texting her earlier and she said it was fine... if that's okay with you” he finishes softly, looking down at the sidewalk.  


Kageyama shrugs  


“I don't really mind, the more time I get to spend with you, the better” he replies softly, blushing.  


Hinata gets a happy bounce to his step after that.  


Kageyama can't help but smile at his boyfriend.  


Hinata talks about nothing of particular importance, but Kageyama doesn't really mind.  


It's just the fact that Hinata wanted to share all this information that's significant, not the actual information itself.  
Kageyama smiles happily, unconsciously swinging their joint hands.  


He doesn’t notice initially, but eventually realises that Hinata’s chattering has petered out. He looks over and sees him looking at him in wonder. This causes Kageyama to blush brightly.  


“W-what’re you looking at?” he asks softly, rubbing under his nose in embarrassment.  


Hinata just smiles at him, squeezing his hand softly.  


“Nothing, just didn’t know how much better you looked when you’re smiling. Like, actually smiling and happy looking.” Hinata just shrugs and blushes a little bit at him “I like it.”  


Kageyama ignores the fact that he said anything. He had to, to avoid himself breaking into a stuttering, blushing mess.  
Hinata and Kageyama finish their walk in comfortable silence, eventually arriving at Kageyama’s apartment. 

 

***

 

Now, Kageyama was fully expecting to get home, have a shower and go to sleep.  


Hinata, apparently, had a very different idea.  


Once they got through the door, Hinata practically tackled Kageyama against the wall.  
Kageyama just felt like a deer in headlights, while Hinata’s eyes looked like those headlights, and boy was he lost in them.  


Hinata kisses him softly, without his usual energy.  


Kageyama thinks it’s an attempt to try not to scare him, and it’s going pretty well. He eventually starts kissing him back, wrapping his arms around Hinata and sliding his hands under HInata’s shirt.  


Hinata coos happily, starting to shake from the stress of being on his tip toes.  


Kageyama chuckles softly into the kiss and bends down a bit, cupping his face. Hinata makes a soft happy sound, wrapping his arms tightly around Kageyama’s waist.  


‘Maybe we can finish what we started earlier’ he thinks happily to himself. Apparently Hinata has the same idea, pushing Kageyama harder against the wall.  


But, just because the universe is against him, it was at this point that Kageyama’s phone decided to ring.  


He groans and pulls back from the kiss, seeing Hinata pout  


“Do you ha~ave to get it?” he whines, pouting at him. Kageyama reluctantly nods  


“Yeah, you should go to bed, I’ll be there in no time okay?” Hinata perks back up again at that and pads quietly into the apartment.  


Kageyama quickly rifles through his bag, grabbing out his phone and quickly answering it without looking at it. 

Which was a mistake, as he promptly discovered.  


“Hello? Kageyama Tobio speaking” he answers in his standard, bored sounding monotone. 

He’s quite honestly surprised he can pull that off so soon after kissing Hinata but he doesn’t have time to dwell on it.  


“Tobio? It’s your mother. I'm planning on coming down this weekend.” she states, not even bothering to ask if he was busy, it’s not like she ever did.  


"Um, I'm going away on training camp with the volleyball club this weekend. I told you about it a few weeks ago..” he says softly.  
He can practically hear his mother's annoyance.  


“If you don’t want us to come down you can just say so!” she snaps  


Kageyama doesn’t respond  


‘I do.. I want you to come down so badly... but you only offer to come down when I’m going away’ he thinks, but says nothing out loud for fear of his mother’s reaction.  


“Well. I hope school is going better than last semester. I hope you’ll be receiving those packages regularly.” she says, sounding very business like. Kageyama could hear the threat in her voice and tries very hard not to react.  


He didn’t need the reminder of what happened last time  


“Yes mother. It’s going a lot better” he lies. It really wasn’t. Maybe Suga would help him out with his exams.  


“Oh, and I was talking to Tooru, and he said you were with someone! Tobio, we talked about this! Firstly, you’re holding back this poor girl, whoever she is. She has a soul mate out there somewhere! You’re just a distraction, why not just save yourself the heartbreak and not even bother letting it get too serious! And secondly, imagine how this will impact your volleyball! You should know by now that no one will stay with you! Volleyball is the only thing you can do, it’s the only thing that’ll even be worth anything! Come on Tobio, I thought you knew better than this!” she childed.  


Kageyama didn’t even bother actually responding. He just murmured ‘Yes mother’, ‘I understand’ and ‘Of course I won’t get distracted’.  


Freaking Oikawa! 

If only he knew how much the shit he said impacted him.  


“Good. I’ll be talking to you later.” she says, hanging up.  


Kageyama closes his phone and contains a whimper, sliding down the wall and sitting on the ground with his head in his hands.  


‘It’ll be fine. They’re not coming down. You don’t have to deal with them. It’s okay. They can’t break you two up. They don’t really even know anything about him. They don’t even know that Hinata’s a he. Hinata won't leave. He won't. He said he wouldn't. Your parents can't change that. It’ll be fine. They can’t break us up. Oikawa didn’t tell them everything. It’ll be okay. It’ll be fine.’ he comforts until his breathing goes back to normal.  


When he calms down he heads into his room, feeling genuinely emotionally exhausted.  


He finds Hinata lying in the bed, asleep looking like his usual, cutie self.  


Kageyama quickly moves over and lies in the bed next to Hinata, wrapping his arms around Hinata and holding him close.  


Hinata snuggles close, putting his head on Kageyama’s chest and sliding his arms around him. Kageyama just smiles and holds him close.  


With Hinata right there, maybe he could just forget about his parents. Maybe he could just see Hinata as his family. Maybe he could just forget that there was life outside this bed, and just be happy here for a little bit.  


That would be nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY  
> I'M SORRY  
> It's a slightly longer chapter  
> BUT  
> BECAUSE I WAS IN JAPAN I HAD NO TIME  
> I'M SORRY  
> I'm on holidays now though so there WILL be more updates more regularly  
> (after my trail exams)  
> I'M SO SORRY FOR THE 11 DAY WAIT!!
> 
> ... currently re reading it and frick, i noticed a continuity error!! Sorry!!


	8. AWW HINATA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 28/9/16  
> Hinata comforts Kageyama and is generally a mature little munchkin

Kageyama woke up in the morning.  


In all honesty, it was kinda too early to call morning.  


It was the kind of ‘morning’ in which you looked at you clock and the only reason you knew that you’d slept was because the numbers were slightly different.  


In an attempt to remedy the lack of sleep he had, he curled closer to Hinata. However, apparently Hinata wasn’t asleep either and blearily opened his eyes  


“Kageyama? You awake?” he hears Hinata whisper softly. Kageyama nods slightly, snuggling closer.  


“Who was on the phone last night?” he asks softly, stroking Kageyama’s hair.  


“J-Just my parents” he says softly, slightly muffled. Hinata didn’t miss the stutter though.  


“What’d they say?” he asks, kissing Kageyama’s hair. Kageyama shrugs  


“Nothing much... just boring, m-mundane stuff” he says, the slight tremor in his voice.  


Hinata sighs softly and pushes Kageyama back a bit  


“You know I know when you’re lying right?” he says with a pout. 

Kageyama sighs and reluctantly looks at him  


“Yeah, course you do..” he mumbles “It was nothing important really, they were jus-”  


“If it upset you it’s extremely important” Hinata says back with a harsh ferocity that Kageyama didn’t expect, his eyes hard and fiery like only Hinata’s can be.  


“U-um, well.. My mum, she basically... she just brought up how after.. Not doing so good on my exams my monthly care package from them didn’t come...” he gulps after that, not quite sure how Hinata was going to take any of this “And then she said she’s had a nice conversation with Oikawa, who said I was with someone. She just... reminded me that I was just wasting their time and setting myself up for heartbreak. How much it would hurt me and how I was just a spot holder for them until they found their soulmate. How it would impact my Volleyball.” he’d started crying at some point and by the end, had turned hysterical.  


Realisation was painted on Hinata’s face as he wrapped his arms tightly around Kageyama and pulled him close, Kageyama hiding his face in Hinata’s shirt as he cried.  


“Well I’m not going anywhere. You’re not alone, no matter how bad it feels, you need to realise that we’re actually all here for you. That the whole volleyball team is there for you. Tanaka-senpai would go to insane lengths to protect you, you should know that.” Hinata smiles a bit as he holds Kageyama tightly “And if anything I’ll improve your volleyball, not hurt it.” he leans down and softly kisses Kageyama’s hair “I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon, I don’t plan to meet anyone else, I’m not looking for my soulmate cause I’ve already found him, in you” Hinata says softly into his ear, stroking Kageyama’s back.  


Kageyama has calmed down slightly by this point and looks up at Hinata with a cranky face  


“Don’t lie to make me feel better, it just makes me feel worse.” he says bitterly, snuggling closer to Hinata.  


Hinata sighs and tilts Kageyama’s head to look at him  


“You wanna know why i think you’re my soulmate? You know what a pencil is perfect for? Drawing on a blank canvas. And you know what you are? One of eight clean canvas’ in the world.” he says softly, blushing a bit at his own sincerity and Kageyama’s stare.  


Kageyama’s face had suddenly gained a very dark red colour.  


Hinata chuckled and hugged him tighter.  


“You really think that?” Kageyama says softly after a while and Hinata nods  


“Yeah, really” Hinata mumbled back, struggling to keep his eyes open  


Kageyama would’ve told him to go to sleep, but at this point they were both pretty much unconscious, and so Kageyama fell asleep, wrapped up in the arms of his boyfriend, feeling at peace.

***

‘Ah, I’ve never hated waking up in the morning for volleyball practice as much as I Have in this moment’ Kageyama thinks bitterly to himself, turning slightly away from Hinata in an attempt to get up.  


It didn’t really work as Hinata just groaned and further twisted the pair into the sheets.  


Kageyama huffed, but couldn’t help but smile, resting his head against his boyfriend’s chest.  


One bonus of the height difference in this position, it meant Kageyama could curl up and not really disturb Hinata’s sleep with knees in his crotch.  


Kageyama shook his head, he did not need to think about Hinata’s crotch right now.  


“Whaaaa?” Hinata groaned softly, rolling over and finally falling out of the bed. Kageyama hid a snicker and with a cough and looked down at his boyfriend  


“You okay?” he says softly, his face looking as unmoved as usual.  


Hinata pouted but nodded  


“Yeah, fine. Thanks” he grumbles, sitting up and looking around with bleary eyes.  


Kageyama gets up and goes into the kitchen, throwing together a breakfast for the pair and quickly rushing them off to practice.

***

The rest of the week passed with little mishap, Hinata finally going home to his parents and coming back with extra food everyday that he insists he didn’t know was there.  


Kageyama just enjoyed sitting around with his boyfriend and, of course, volleyball.  


By the time Friday had rolled around, Kageyama was ready.  


Training camp?  


They were ready to win their first battle at the garbage dump.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay  
> So  
> This one is tiny  
> I KNOW, DON'T REMIND ME!!  
> Seriously, I'm so sorry guys  
> I was like "Right, imma do some work on this and then update it like tomorrow"  
> AND THEN SUDDENLY IT WAS TODAY AND I HADN'T EVEN WRITTEN "CHAPTER 8" IN MY DOCUMENT  
> WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH  
> So, this is all I have right now  
> NEXT UPDATE WILL BE BETTER, I PROMISE  
> It'll have some volleyball as well though, so be warned.  
> See ya'll next time!


	9. Training montage!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 4/10/16  
> So, everything's fine  
> We find out some cool stuff about our little Kageyama!  
> Aaaand then Kageyama makes a not-so-nice discovery... (sorry!)

The bus trip was peaceful enough, Kageyama sat next to Hinata the whole trip, staring out the window like the depressed, gloomy guy he was. However, there was nothing that sad or depressing happening, Hinata had insisted on holding his hand the moment they'd sat down and Kageyama was still trying to calm down from that and not make it obvious how nervous he was to Hinata.  


Luckily, Hinata had fallen asleep on his shoulder about half an hour ago so he didn't have to worry too much, that was just Hinata being Hinata and psyching himself up so much that he'd exhausted himself.  


Kageyama didn't really mind though, he was okay with this level of PDA.  


Even if his blush horribly betrayed him.  


But it was cute enough that everyone left them alone, they'd tease him about it later. 

***

They eventually arrived at the camp, Nekoma already there and unloading their stuff. Hinata was one of the first off, bounding off the bus to find Kenma as if he'd forgotten Kageyama existed.  


He panicked for a second  


‘What if Kenma is his soulmate? I can't loose him this quickly, I can't..’ he thinks to himself just as Hinata comes bounding back with Kenma and Kuroo in tow.  


“Kageyaaamaaa, I found Kenma! And Kuroo was with him! Isn't that so cool?!” Hinata said in his usual, over excited fashion.  


Kenma was distractedly staring at his gameboy, faintly nodding at Kageyama.  


Kuroo just smirked like usual  


“Kageyama! How’s your volleyball going?” he asks good naturedly, wrapping his arm around Kenma’s shoulders.  


Kageyama shruged  


“You'll see in a bit. Sorry, sadly I need to take back this idiot and go help unpack” he replies, grabbing Hinata by the scruff of his shirt and dragging him towards where the team were unpacking. Hinata’s mood was unfallable though as he waved goodbye to Kuroo and Kenma, who waved slightly but were already lost in conversation.  


***  


“When’re you gonna tell him?” Kuroo quietly asks Kenma, waving goodbye to the hyperactive red head.  
Kenma shrugs  


“He seems happy enough with Kageyama-kun, why should I tear that apart when I'm plenty happy how I am?” he mumbles softly, repeating what he'd told Kuroo a thousand times. Just cause Hinata was right there wouldn't change Kenma’s mind.  


“Besides” Kenma continued “Shouyou is smarter than you're giving him credit for. If he just wants to be platonic then I'm not gonna complain. His connection to Kageyama-kun has been obvious for as long as I've known him, I wouldn't wanna break them up now they've finally got together” Kenma finishes, not having looked up from his game. 

He'd thought about this a lot.  


Kuroo shakes his head  


“Well, I mean, it IS up to you but...” he says, looking at Hinata and Kageyama chill with their bags, listening to their captain.  
Kenma shrugs and tugs on Kuroo’s arm  


“Coach wants us. Let’s go” he says softly, pulling Kuroo away from the happy couple.

***

The Ryokan let the teams stay in side-by-side rooms, Karasuno got settled in a big room together with Nekoma next door.  


They were quickly herded down to the gym to start practice.  


“Okay, so, we’re splitting you guys up into mixed groups of three to get used to working with other people who you don’t usually work with, and with multiple smaller matches. Alright?” Ukai growls out.  


“USU!!” both teams tell in unison.  


Kageyama gets stuck in a three with Kuroo and Kenma, and to Hinata’s delight he does with Noya-Senpai and some random Nekoma player.  


‘Oh yay, this is gonna be fun’ Kageyama thought sarcastically, following behind the Nekoma pair.

***

First, they fought it out against some no-name second years. Well, fought it out is a nice term for what they did, it was more of a freaking thrashing where Kenma and Kuroo pushed Kageyama out of way. 

Fun.  


After that, Daichi and Suga came over with a Nekoma third year. Though Kuroo tried to push through and Kenma seemed, as usual, completely unaffected by any of this.  


Kuroo spiked straight down, but Daichi quickly receives it, hitting it up for Suga, who sets it for the Nekoma third year who quickly spikes it down before Kageyama can even think to move.  


They’re 6 points down at this point and it’s really starting to get to Kageyama.  


“If you two could stop trying to play by yourselves, that would be great! You know I’m on your team and we’re actually meant to let me help you out! This isn’t a duo game you know..” he all but yells at them, the fact that he was losing to his senpai was really getting to him, considering it never happened to him when he got to go with Hinata.  


Kenma shrugs  


“You set then, I’ll recieve” he says softly. Kuroo blinks in complete surprise.  


“What?! Since when can you do that?! You never do anything except set! You're a setter!” Kuroo rants, glaring at him.  


Kenma shrugs  


“We’ll figure something out. We’re a mini team, at least for the moment.” he replies, switching spots with Kageyama.  


Kageyama just kinda watches this exchange with wide eyes, much like their senpai’s on the other side.  


“U-um, well, let’s p-play then I guess?” Daichi says, serving the ball.  


Kenma quickly receives it with a soft yelp, almost perfectly for Kageyama to set, and he does, quickly setting it to Kuroo, who smashes it past Daichi’s block, to the surprise of everyone involved.  


Kageyama blinks and puts up his hand  


“Good job?” he says soft and Kuroo turns back, high-fiving him in shock.  


Kenma give him a small smile  


“Told you this would work better.” is all Kenma says before he serves the next ball.

***

The act of absolutely smashing their opponents continues for the rest of the afternoon. 

However, while up against Tanaka and Asahi an interesting thing happened.  


“What do you mean you’re tired?!” Kageyama hisses at Kuroo, who looked like he’d been through hell and back and had found the whole experience rather enjoyable.  


“I mean, you try hitting spikes all day and not tiring eventually!” rebuts Kuroo. Kageyama sighs  


“I really didn’t wanna do this, but we don’t have that much of a choice now... Kenma, switch with me. I’ll take Kuroo’s spot” he mutters darkly, breathing deeply.  


Everyone just kinda stands there for a moment. Kageyama looks at them  


“We have a game to win, don’t we?” he asks, probably a bit harsher than necessary.  


Everyone snaps out of their stupor at this point, but Kenma looks kinda on edge.  


Kageyama quickly walks over, whispering into his ear something that seemed to make Kenma a lot more at ease.  


He quickly looks back at Kuroo and nods, indicating for him to serve the ball.  


They do, and Tanaka quickly receives it, hitting it up for a Nekoma student to set for Asahi, but the set goes too far over, sending it into the other half of the court.  


Kuroo dives for it and hits it up  


“TSUMAN! COVER!” he shouts from his spot on the ground, getting up as quick as he can.  


Kageyama watches as Kenma takes a deep breath, matching his breathing. 

He watches as Kenma receives the ball and works out exactly where he needs to be.  


One wrong move and this could all go wrong.  


Kageyama takes a breath and shuts his brain off, he doesn’t need this doubt right now.  


He takes a small run up and jumps, hitting it straight down over the net.  


Straight past Asahi and Tanaka’s blocks.  


As he lands, the group of 6 is silent, just staring at the ball on the ground on the 3rd year's side.  


Everyone else notices that something’s happened when they don’t start up again.  


Hinata’s the first one over there.  


“Kageyama? What happened?” he asks, concern edged in his features.  


Kuroo is the first one to break out of the haze, a smile breaking out across his face.  


“KAGEYAMA! THAT WAS AWESOME!” he yells, charging over and wrapping his arms around Kageyama, picking him up and laughing.  
A 

t this point everyone’s kinda frozen in surprise.  


Kenma clears his throat next  


“That really was amazing Kageyama-kun. Well done.” Kenma says, with very minimal enthusiasm, though that’s more than he’d ever shown around Kageyama so he’s really surprised.  


Asahi and Tanaka start miming crying and cheering  


“Our little kouhai are growing up and branching out!” they say happily.  


At this point Daichi interupts  


“What the hell happened? I leave for 5 seconds and when I come back you’re all crowded around Kageyama like some hero! What happened?!” he asks, looking rather concerned.  


“Kageyama spiked past Asahi and Tanaka!” Kuroo bellows, finally putting Kageyama down.  


There’s like a universal gasp and all the Karasuno students look like a mix of excitement and fright, how much more could this first year power duo DO?!  


Daichi blinks and laughs.  


When Kuroo gives him a weird look he stops  


“Wait, you’re not kidding?!” he says, sounding genuinely surprised. Kuroo just shakes his head like a confused puppy.  


“No, why would I kid about that?” he says back.  


Kageyama’s trying to avoid looking at anyone’s reactions, except he can’t seem to look away from Hinata’s.  


He’s just looking at Kageyama like he’d found the God of Volleyball.  


“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME YOU COULD SPIKE?!” he bellows, but in excitement more than anger.  


Kageyama just kinda clears his throat and scratches the back of his head  
“Wait, you guys didn’t KNOW?!” says Kuroo, looking genuinely surprised.  


“U-Um, well, before I was a setter, back in middle school, I tried to be an all rounder like Oikawa... but no one can be like Oikawa, he’s a one of a kind.. So I just gave it up, cause I mean, why bother competing with Oikawa, he’s the best... and no one would set to me anyway.. So I told myself I would be a setter so that the people in the volleyball world around me didn’t have to feel the same way, so that I could always support them...” he says softly, feeling really stupid and sentimental for his motivations but still not wanting to give them up.  


After a few seconds nobody says anything and Kageyama looks around, expecting to see laughter in the eyes of his teammates and rivals.  


This, however, was not what actually happened.  


Asahi was practically wrapped around his tiny boyfriend and Kageyama could see the telltale shake of his shoulders, that he was crying, sobbing even. 

Freaking marshmallow.  


Looking around, he noticed that instead of the mocking atmosphere he had expected, it was rather sombre.  


He felt a hand creep into his and knew that Hinata’s eyes would be glassy with unshed tears. Kageyama refused to look at him, knowing he’d start crying, instead just squeezing his hand softly as Hinata leaned against him.  


This was, of course, the time that Ukai and the other coaches decided to walk in, bringing their jovial spirit into the most sombre volleyball practice they’d ever witnessed.  


He cleared his throat  


“Uh, everyone okay?” he asks, looking around and seeing the emotion written on everyone’s faces.  


Kageyama decides he’s the only one who can really answer that, considering the depressed looks some people had.  


“Yeah, we’re fine. We’ll get back to practice, sorry coach” he says, pulling slightly away from Hinata and letting go of his hand  


“Come on, we’ve got a Asahi and Tanaka to beat still, don’t we?” he says with an uncharacteristic amount of energy. 

Hell, maybe that’s where Hinata and Noya’s energy went.  


Kuroo and Kenma nod, moving back into position as everyone else clears the hell off the court and goes back to their own, though a few stay around to watch.  


Ukai’s curious at this point as he gets Daichi’s attention.  


“What’re we all waiting for? What’s with the exceedingly sad mood ‘round here?” he asks, frowning “Did Kageyama start a fight with Asahi or something?” he asks, noting the gentle giants tear tracks.  


Daichi shakes his head  


“Apparently Kageyama can spike. And I don’t mean like, a little. I mean like, blowing through Asahi and Tanaka’s blocks.” Daichi replies, watching the back and forth between the two groups.  


Ukai smirks  


“Is that so? I knew he was hiding a special talent” Ukai says, already plotting about how to use this newfound information.  


“And the sad mood?” he asks, really confused as to how it was a sad thing. 

Exciting and slightly frightening, sure, but not sad.  


Daichi darkens a bit  


“He was on a team with Oikawa when he tried to be an all rounder, and because of how demonic that guy is, Kageyama went off the rails, like he was when we first got him. This meant no one would serve to him, so he became a server in order to make sure no one felt the same way. Hell of a sad story if you ask me” says Daichi, biting his lip as Asahi lines up a set with Kuroo, trying to get another spike to see if it was a fluke.  


“Musn’t of been that good if Oikawa threw him off” Ukai says, turning to watch.  


Kuroo receives and hits it up to Kenma. 

This time, all three jump for the block, but Kageyama delays it by a second... then two... and suddenly the block is falling as the spike hits its peak, Kageyama hitting it hard over the block, slamming it down on the floor.  


As he lands he crouches a little longer, grinning to himself. He hadn’t lost it.  


Kuroo cheers and yells  


“AGAIN!” 

Kageyama just nods  


“Yeah, again.” he murmurs.  


Ukai reevaluates after seeing that.  


He smirks, this could just be the weapon they needed. 'Thanks Oikawa, you just gave us our best weapon'.  


Daichi chuckles  


“We better thank Kuroo later for finding our new secret weapon.” he says, turning back to his court.  


Ukai smirks, hell, if that’s all they get out of this camp, he’d be happy.

***

The whistle blows and god, Kageyama has never been so glad to hear that sound in his life.  


Even though Kuroo spiked for more than half, he was a middle blocker, he did that, he trained for that.  


Kageyama hadn’t spiked since middle school and god was he out of practice.  


Though he now remembered why he loved it so much, why he’d wanted to be like Oikawa so bad. Hinata was right, there was nothing like the feeling of that ball against his hand.  


They were dismissed for baths and dinner, told to meet up after for a games night, though Kageyama had already resigned himself to spiking practice.  


Thank god Ukai wasn’t one for long talks, as he quickly sent them on their way.  


Hinata was the first thing he saw as he literally launched himself into Kagayama.  


“Where do you think you’re going?! You didn’t tell me you could spike!! It was so coool!! Like GWWWWWWWWWWWWAH and then like... boop!” he explains in his usual, convoluted Hinata-y way. Kageyama didn’t even mind that much.  


“Cause, I can’t really... I can’t do it for ages like you or Asahi, and I can’t do it very well either...” he says, pushing Hinata away a bit.  
Hinata pouts  


“Well, I thought it was amazing! So did everyone else too!” he complains, grabbing Kageyama’s hand.  


Kageyama rolls his eyes but doesn’t pull his hand away, instead squeezing it softly.  


He feels Kuroo hook his arms around Kageyama and Hinata’s shoulders  


“Who’s ready for the onsen!” he all but yells as Kenma follows him, having procured his console from somewhere.  
Hinata looks like an overexcited puppy and looks up excitedly at Kageyama, who nods reluctantly.  


“Yeah, yeah, okay, fine.” he mutters, which causes Hinata to start cheering.  


He flexes his sore shoulder, who knows, maybe a soak in the onsen would do him some good.

***

Kuroo ends up dragging Kenma along as well, dragging the four into the traditional looking entrance and quickly over to the lockers.  
Kageyama rolls his eyes at their quickness, watching Hinata and Kuroo practically throw their clothes all over the place, and though Kenma was neater about it, he kept up with the other two.  


Kageyama, on the other hand, has always been very particular about this, much like everything else.  


“Kageyama, we’re going ahead, okay?” Hinata calls out, walking with Kenma and Kuroo towards the onsen.  
He turns around, nodding his head  


“Yeah, yeah, see you in the..re...” he says, fading at the end.  


From this angle all he could see was their backs, sure.  


But he saw two that looked just the same.  


Short.  


Pale.  


Pencil shaped birthmarks on their left shoulders.  


Kageyama couldn’t breathe.  


“U-uh, I forg-got something in the ro-oom. I-I’ll be ba-ack” he says weakly, quickly shoving his clothes back on and running out of there.  


‘Well, wasn’t that fun! Guess it’s over now though.’ the voice tells him and Kageyama can’t find it in himself to disagree, instead sitting down just around the corner from the entrance from the onsen and crying.  


Sobbing.

It was all over and Kageyama was broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay  
> So  
> I'm sorry!!  
> Tanaka will come and be a good senpai next chapter, I PROMISE!!  
> Also, this one is extra long (by my standards) to make up for the disgrace of last chapter <3  
> But, I do really like the volleyball bit!
> 
> THANKS FOR THE 30+ COMMENTS, 100+ KUDOS AND 1300+ HITS!!  
> THEY MAKE ME VERY HAPPY AND VALIDATE THE TIME I SPEND ON THIS!! <3 
> 
> I'd love to hear what you guys think in the comments, good or bad!!


	10. A little bit of Tanaka can make anything better (hopefully)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 10/10/16  
> Set up for the impending recovery of Hinata/Kageyama and a little bit of Kenma  
> FROM TANAKA'S POV  
> (There's a giant rant from Tanaka about half way through, sorry if the formatting's a bit weird... SORRY!)

Eventually Kageyama’s sobs petered out. 

Or at least that's what he'd like to think. 

He had no tears left and he had a headache from crying so hard. His breathing was still that of sobbing, the deep, shaking breaths that get pushed out harshly before they can be even remotely beneficial to his headache. 

At this point Kageyama was practically comatose, feeling so physically drained from the day and so emotionally drained from... everything else.

He eventually pulled himself together enough to sit up properly. 

Hinata, Kuroo and Kenma sure were taking a long time in there. 

Probably just them all being idiots, as per normal. 

He heard Tanaka and Noya, and probably Asahi in there somewhere, going for their baths. 

He tried to calm his breathing, at least until they left, but Tanaka was like a freaking guardian angel and quickly ducked around the corner. 

He saw Kageyama, saw the mess that was his face and the uneven rise and fall of his chest and made a snap judgement.

“Yeah, guys, I'll catch up!” He bellowed to Noya and Asahi, waving them off. 

Kageyama figures they just left and went into the bath cause Tanaka quickly moved over to crouch in front of Kageyama.  
He clicked his tongue

“What's wrong? Where's Hinata? Why’re you such a sobbing mess?” he asks it all like Kageyama imagines Suga would, with that worried look and mothering tone. 

Kageyama can just shake his head, too exhausted to even try to speak.  
Tanaka sighed in frustration.

“Okay, I'll give you three options and i need you to hold up the number of fingers okay?” he says softly, looking intensely at Kageyama, who nods slightly.

“Okay, uh, 1.. Hinata’s off getting drinks and you missed him so much you had a breakdown. 2, uh, Hinata is being held hostage and you don't have enough money to pay the ransom! Or, 3, Hinata’s been... uh... kidnapped by aliens! And they're not gonna bring him back.” Tanaka says with a straight face, holding up the amount of fingers for each one.  
Kageyama laughs softly, but shakes his head 

“4, I saw that Kenma and Hinata have matching birthmarks on their shoulders” he whimpers, hiding his face behind his hand.  
Tanaka’s face falls 

“Oh.” he asks, sitting down properly, knowing that this wouldn't be a short thing. 

Kageyama shakes his head

“I don't think he knows” he mumbles, resting his head against his knees “He's blind and an idiot so”

Tanaka sighs and looks sadly at his kouhai

“I think that, as thick and bold headed as Hinata is, he wouldn't hurt you on purpose. Ever. Unless Kenma or you say something, he'll probably never know.” Tanaka attempts to comfort, but he knows that unless they all talk about it Kageyama probably won't be able to spring back from this. 

Tanaka sighs, this wasn't gonna be easy

“Do you want me to organise a talk with them?” he says softly and sees Kageyama shake his head slightly 

“If they wanna be together then I don't wanna stop them” he mutters but Tanaka hears him “My parents were right at least, no one could ever love a reject like me. Not even fate could help make someone fall in love with me” he says, but not even bitterly, just like it was a sad truth he was avoiding.  
Tanaka groans

“I swear to god, I'm gonna kill your parents after this” he mutters too quietly for Kageyama to hear.

Kageyama just kinda whimpers and Tanaka reasses the situation, not wanting to leave Kageyama here alone while he dealt with the other side(s) of this.  
Then a thought popped into his head.

Suga. 

The perfect motherly comfort right now. 

In fact, not only was he in Tanaka’s head, but Tanaka could hear him walking down the hall.

He quickly pats Kageyama on the shoulder and gets up, muttering “I'll be right back” and then quickly running around the corner, almost running straight into Suga.

“Um, Suga, could I get some help of yours with a certain ravenhaired first year please? I would say it won't take long but... I'd rather not lie to you” he says rather quietly, in the hope that Kageyama won't hear him. 

Suga must see something in the urgency of Tanaka’s face which makes him understand that it's not a light requet.

Suga nods hesitantly, his eyes already flicking around for the raven haired setter. 

Tanaka quickly drags Suga around he corner, findung that Kageyama hadn't moved. 

He cringes, not sure of how Kageyama would react to telling Suga, but also having the feeling that he already knew everything.

Suga just holds his hand up when Tanaka’s about to start talking

“He needs someone to trust, and apparently it's you” Suga shakes his head when Tanaka puffs out his chest “I'll never understand why though” he says with a playful grin. Tanaka deflates a bit, but is still smiling, but quickly looses it as he kneels next to Kageyama

“Hey, Kageyama, Suga’s here and he'll take you... on a... walk..?” he says, cringing and looking at Suga who shakes his head while trying to contain his laughter, but is nodding slightly.

Kageyama nods blindly, looking up from where his head rested against his knees.

Even Suga’s happy demenor couldn't withstand the state Kageyama was in. 

Still being sweaty and disgusting from practice, mixed with red-eyes and tear stains, he was such a mess. 

Suga kneels down next to him, quickly helping him up and offering him a small towel to wipe his face.

Knowing Kageyama was in good hands, Tanaka went back towards the onsen single mindedly. 

***

Though he didn’t really need the distraction, he had to have a shower before he sped outside to the onsen, so he took the fastest shower known to man and zipped outside, looking like a hawk for Hinata and co.

He quickly found them, Hinata’s face matching his hair. 

Tanaka sighs to himself and heads over, wading through the bath. 

“Come on Hinata! You’re going to faint if you stay in any longer!” complains Kuroo, sitting on the edge and watching him, the exasperation showing on his face. 

“But Kageyama said he’d meet us in here! And he’s not here yet... We can’t leave before he gets here!” he whines back, sinking down in the water.  
Tanaka sighs softly, really not wanting to tell Hinata why Kageyama wasn’t in there with them.

But he knows he has to, Kageyama was breaking down and he couldn’t let himself leave Hinata in his innocence.

He clears his throat, watching as the three turn to him 

“U-uh, Kageyama won’t be coming in...” he says, looking at Hinata, watching his face drop in confusion.

“Huh? Why not? He said he would!” he says, sounding like a whiney child but his eyes look more confused.

“Um, I think this’ll be better with clothes on. I’ll explain then.” he says, waving his arms toward the changeroom, honestly kinda worried that Hinata was going to faint.  
Kenma and Kuroo jump at the chance to escape, barely not running toward the room, while Hinata grumpily walks behind them with Tanaka.

“Uh, if you wanna know what’s wrong with Kageyama, just try looking at Kenma’s right shoulder” he says softly, needing a kinda subtle way to tell Hinata.  
Hinata looks for a few seconds, and then looks back at Tanaka with a shrug.

“So?” 

Tanaka’s eyebrow twitches

“He has the same MARK AS YOU DO DUMBASS!!” he yells, hitting Hinata softly on the head grumpily.

Hinata yelps, rubbing the spot on his head

“But, why does that matter?” he asks, but quickly follows himself up when Tanaka death glares him, with the eyes of a fury “It doesn’t change that I see Kenma as a friend or Kageyama as my boyfriend. My feelings don’t suddenly change when I see my matching mark” he says with a slight pout.

Tanaka’s just about to burst at this point.

“Okay, so to all of you people with marks, apparently they’re not very important, they’re just things that everyone has, right? Well you wanna know what it feels like when you don’t have one? It makes you feel isolated!  
You think everyone else knows! You’re convinced that no one can like you, because you’re wrong! How could you get along with other people when you’re missing something that’s so fundamental to being a person!  
No matter what, you’re convinced that anything you do wrong is dependant on that! It doesn’t help when teachers and parents blame you being weird, or slow, or dumb, or a sport nut, on not having a mark!  
They deem you emotionless because you don’t anyone that fate has decided you’re tied to! They set goals for you because they don’t think you’re capable of even basic human functions, because you’ve managed to fail at even having someone else out there for you!  
So when Kageyama found out that Kenma had your matching mark, he freaked out!  
How could you expect him to when all examples of pairs are now couples, and have been since the moment they found out!  
He at least deeply likes you, maybe even loves you! He’s scared of losing you!  
He doesn’t want to lose you, he’s terrified!  
Because of what we’re told, HE’S WILLING TO LET IT HAPPEN!  
Why?  
Because he wants one thing! Just one... Wanna know what that is? FOR YOU TO BE HAPPY! Of course it freaking matters!  
We’ve told that, yeah, we can fall in love with someone. If you want your heart broken and if you want to just be a waste of their time and your own, than go ahead and try and sustain a relationship, but it’s never gonna actually get anywhere!”

The whole bath is silent, with only the occasional lap of water to break the silence. 

Hinata’s pale and staring at Tanaka as if he were one of the scariest things alive. Though, to be fair, he had been yelling.

And now he was basically panting, through trying to contain his emotions. 

‘Some people just don’t fucking get it’ he thinks bitterly to himself, closing his eyes for a second.

He eventually looks around. 

Kuroo and Kenma are staring at the ground, focusing on their respective feet.

Noya and Asahi, who were sitting the bath have moved to the side closest to him, both looking kinda awkward. 

He sighs shakily and almost runs into the changerooms, getting dressed with this air of anger around him.

Ryu shakily gets dressed, and of course this is when a soaking Noya decides to run in, wrapping him in a tight hug.

And for a minute, they just stand there like that. And Tanaka feels a bit better. And everything’s okay, and there’s no drama between Hinata and Kageyama, and Hinata and Kenma aren’t soulmates, and he didn’t just yell at the literal sunshine of the world.

“Ryu? You okay? You didn’t have to go off at Hinata like that... pretty sure you scared the poor kid so bad he hasn’t moved..” he says softly, holding on him tighter.  
Tanaka takes in a shaky breath, pulling back from Noya’s embrace. 

“I’m fine. I-I’ll wait for Hinata and Kenma to come out. I’ll need to drag them up to Kageyama after this... Kageyama was a freaking mess, and they just... didn’t get it...” he says softly, grinning at Noya, but not being able to hide the tears in his eyes from him.

Noya frowns but nods his head slightly, hitting Tanaka softly in the shoulder

“Well, I’m gonna back in with Asahi.. I’ll make sure the boys don’t make you wait too long bro.” he says, smiling at Tanaka before leaving.

Tanaka sighs, Kageyama had better appreciate this.

***

It took Noya physically pushing the boys out for them to leave, but hey, it was better than nothing.

They all looked low-key terrified. 

“Come on. Kageyama’s probably back at the room already with Suga.” he says softly, feeling so emotionally drained by the whole affair. 

He also noticed that Hinata had been crying, but didn’t say anything, literally just wanting to lock the three in the room until they worked everything out. 

Wait, was that something he could actually do? 

Quickly walking up to the room with Hinata, Kenma and Kuroo in tow, Tanaka awkwardly sticks his head inside, seeing only Suga and Kageyama inside, with a lot of disgruntled second years sitting outside.

Tanaka ignores them and pushes Kenma and Hinata into the room, quickly pulling Suga out and slamming the doors shut.

Now, these doors didn’t have locks but Tanaka figured they weren’t really nessecery

“Don’t come out until you’ve talked!” he bellows, pulling all the other boys into Nekoma’s room.  
One, he figured they probably didn’t want people walking in, but two, he also needed to destress a bit, and he couldn’t do that in a hallway.

He sits in a corner, falling down quickly to the floor. 

Kuroo comes over and sits by him. 

Tanaka knows he’s there and groans softly.

“What do you wa~~ant?” he whines, looking up at him.

Kuroo chuckles softly into his fist

“You stole my bestfriend, so I’m gonna annoy you until I get him back” he says with a half grin

Tanaka sighs

“Really? What am I a babysitter?” he mutters rhetorically, sitting up.

Kuroo just shrugs with a lopsided grin.

Tanaka groans softly, leaning against the wall.

They sit in companionable silence for a little bit, before Kuroo breaks it

“Are you really sure leaving them alone is a great idea? Kenma doesn’t do great in confrontation..” he says

Tanaka leans his head back against the wall

“Neither is Kageyama” he murmurs, closing his eyes

“But, I think that Hinata and Kageyama’s... feelings.. For each other will get the conversation moving, if in the most awkward way possible..” he says softly, not wanting to think about what was happening in the other room.

It might take them a while, hell, Nekoma might end up with all of Karasuno sleeping in here with them. 

But if it got their first year duo on top of their game, it’d be worth it.

But if it broke them forever... well, Tanaka tried not to dwell on it too much.

“Have a little faith” Kuroo says with a grin “God knows they’ll have to” he mutters and Tanaka can only nod in agreement.

Faith. 

He’d had to have that in them since day 1.

And he hoped it would never need to falter.

But we'd see.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY  
> THIS IS LONG ONE (for me)  
> AND I'LL BE PUTTING OUT ANOTHER ONE PRETTY SOON (like, Friday), because I didn't get everything done in this chapter that I wanted too, cause then it would be too long in comparison to the other chapters, so I split it up  
> I was gonna put the resolution and this in the same chapter but... is too much...
> 
> Also:  
> 1\. Tanaka/Kuroo - yay or WTF NO?!  
> (help! I didn't ship it [still don't really] BUT IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS FIC I KINDA DO AND ARRGH IDK!!)  
> 2\. I dunno, there's like a whole paragraph from Tanaka because I love him, and I kinda wanna explore him some more cause I love him <3  
> 3\. I also REFORMATTED EVERYTHING thanks to a comment, so... if you found that annoying I CHANGED IT I APOLIGISE  
> 4\. PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT TELLING ME WHAT YOU THOUGH!! I ALWAYS RESPOND AS SOON AS I SEE THEM AND I CHECK THEM DAILY!!


	11. "The Talk"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 18/10/16  
> There's a ton of Kenma and Kageyama doing stuff for the benefit of Hinata, but Hinata's not having any of it.

After Tanaka left, Suga kept Kageyama busy with small talk, eventually calming him down enough for him to form a coherant sentance.

Eventually Suga lead them back to the mostly empty room, or at least it was empty of the people Kageyama actually cared about.

Suga pulled Kageyama over to his futon, smiling and eventually pulling out a packet of cards, roping Kageyama into a tentative game of cards.

They just finished when Tanaka charged in with Kenma and Hinata, looking generally frustrated with everything.

He cleared the room, leaving the three alone and slamming the doors closed.

Kageyama didn’t look up the whole time, staring at the pack of cards that Suga had left with him, fiddling with them.

There was an extended awkward silence as no one knew what to say.

Kenma eventually broke the silence.

“Kageyama? Can you look at us please?” he says in his soft, tame, Kenma voice.

It was so soft and tentative and.. Kenma that Kageyama couldn't help but do as he'd asked. 

Looking over he saw Hinata looking more fidgety than normal, but largely managing to stay still. 

Kageyama sighs and turns around fully, stretching out his legs 

“Come here you idiot..” Kageyama mumbled, watching Hinata, who practically threw himself into Kageyama’s lap without saying anything.

He slowly wrapped his arms around his boyfriend's waist, nuzzling the back of his neck. 

After a few moments Kenma cleared his throat

“Can I take that as my answer and go?” he says softly, looking down at his hands.

Kageyama frowns

“Isn't that my line? You two are literally made for each other, what can I offer that compares to that?” he says softly, wanting to feel angry but just feeling tired. Hinata frowns and leans back against Kageyama, grabbing onto his hands tightly, as if he were going to run off at a moments notice.

“Hinata in love with you, it's been obvious since I first met you two. Splitting you two up will just hurt everyone involved, don't you understand that? We may, in the long term, somehow, end up together. But right now, it's impossible! He loves you, and that's not going to change just because he realised we match!” says Kenma, getting exasperated by Kageyama’s thought process. 

Just as Kageyama’s about to respond with something about how it would hurt less to cut it off now, Hinata huffs angrily at them

“I'm right here you know! You need to stop speculating about my emotions when I'm literally right here, ready to tell you! God, and people thought I'd be the one who was like  
RAAAR..” he says, crossing his arms with a pout.

Kenma and Kageyama both look at the floor, blushing in embarrassment

“Good. Well, if either of you’d bothered to actually let me voice my opinion, it’s quite simple. I LIKE BOTH OF YOU”

They both freeze then quickly look at Hinata who’s quite innocently smiling at Kenma.

“I mean, you’re both adorable, both really good at Volleyball, both too stuck in your own heads to actually pay attention to anyone else. If anything, you two would probably get along better without me, if you two didn’t try and kill each other” Hinata says, leaning happily against Kageyama.  
Kageyama blinks and looks at Kenma

“B-But... you two, you’r-” Kageyama starts  
“-e together! There’s nothing that has been able to split you up!” Kenma says, cutting Kageyama off. 

“You act these little marks means that we’re 100% compatible, 100% perfect for each other, and that’s just not how it works!” Kenma yells, clenching his fists at his sides. “Why wreak a perfect relationship like yours just because that’s what you’re told?! Who cares as long as you’re happy?! Kenma yells at them, getting uncharacteristically angry at all of this.

Kageyama just looks like he was slapped, while HInata’s looking at Kenma wide eyed.

“I don’t know why you think it doesn’t matter. Sure, we’re together but have you seen us? Have you seen the way this idiot looks at you? You don’t know this, but his eyes light up when he talks about you. The main thing he was excited for this camp was that you were going to be here. You’re not someone he doesn’t like. He just said that, but he’s not just saying it, it’s true.” Kageyama says, resting his chin on Hinata’s shoulder and looking at Kenma.

Hinata whines softly

“You two! You don’t hate each other! You’re literally arguing over who I like more! The answer is blindly easy to see! I like you EQUALLY” Hinata says, waving his arms around, like he’s trying to explain trigonometry to a dog or something.

Kageyama sighs softly

“So? What do you want us to do about it?” Kageyama asks, closing his eyes in frustration.

Hinata sighs and pouts at Kenma

“This is just gonna keep going in circles, because neither of you seem to think you deserve me, which is just... silly. If anything I don’t deserve either of you!” Hinata complains, picking at his fingernails.

This startles both Kenma and Kageyama, Kenma quickly dropping down in front of Hinata and taking his hands in his.  
“You’re the one being silly Hinata. Of course you deserve either of us. In fact, you deserve both of us, probably more.” Kenma comforts, frowning.  
Hinata looks at him, unable to look at his hands.

“B-but you two... you won’t... and I couldn’t possibly...” he mumbles, becoming less and less coherent.  
Kageyama sighs softly, making a snap decision he already regretted, but... 

“Be with both of us.” He says softly, exposing the elephant they all knew was in the room.  
Both Kenma and Hinata start at the actual suggestion. 

“B-but, that’s not fair to either of y-yo-” Hinata mumbles, shaking his head vehemently.  
Kenma just sighs and nods

“I mean, what about you two? You barely p-put up with each other..” Hinata says, his voice slowly breaking down.  
Kenma and Kageyama look at each other and they have a silent conversation.

“It’s not that we don’t like each other, or dislike each other really. It’s more like we’ve never really needed to bother about being friends because you’ve always been there.” He says softly, stroking HInata’s side, watching Kenma. 

Kenma nods slowly 

“He’s right. You’ve always been the center for both of us. But.. if you’re hoping for a... relationship... between the three of us...” Kenma says, doubting himself every other word 

“Then... then we can try, but we can’t make any promises..” he finishes fastly, blushing oh-so-slightly.  
Kageyama blinks but nods slightly 

“I-I think that... if you give us a few days to, ah, adjust, we can manage it” he says softly, quickly looking between the two.  
Hinata frowns

“I don’t... if you’re just doing this for me I don’t want it! I don’t wanna pick between you two, but I can’t ask you two to try and do any of that. Nope.” Hinata counters, shaking his head. 

Kageyama takes a shaky breath and looks at Kenma, and can tell they’re thinking the same thing.

Unless they did something to convince Hinata, it was just going to be a vicious cycle of disagreement.

Pushing Hinata onto one side of his lap, he quickly reaches out and pulls Kenma next to him, wrapping his arm delicately around Kenma’s waist and refusing to look at him, instead looking at the ceiling with a bright blush. Kenma mimicking the position but leaning against Kageyama. 

Hinata’s smile split across his face as he watched this, leaning against Kageyama and looking at Kenma.

Kageyama feels like, though he might not like Kenma right now, he could quite easily get used to sitting like this with these two.

Kenma feels Kageyama’s eyes on him, but tries to ignore them, instead snuggling perfectly against him. He could get used to this. It was even better than sitting with Kuroo, it was just so.. Intimate. 

Maybe they could get this to work. Or maybe not. 

But they tried not to think too hard about that, they’d deal with that when they got ther. 

But for now, just sitting and snuggling like this seemed like heaven. Perfect. 

...For now..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay  
> It was terrible  
> I know  
> SORRY  
> I just.. the lack of any feedback on last chapter, and also a current lack of direction, plus exams meant this was... never gonna be that good..  
> <3  
> A nice comment would be great, and an opinion on Tanaka/Kuroo as well  
> As always, thanks for reading!


	12. Workin' it out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 25/10/16  
> Kenma and Kageyama have a bit of a cutesy talk after their friends/senpai's are idiots

Kageyama, Hinata and Kenma eventually moved once Kageyama lost feeling in his legs, which took all of 20 minutes. 

Hinata whined and moaned when Kageyama told them to get up, Kenma quickly getting up and offering his hand to Hinata with a very small smile.

Kageyama sighed and stretched out his legs.

“I still need to have a bath..” Kageyama mutttered, throwning himself back on the futon. 

Kenma laughs quietly behind his hand as Tanaka and Kuroo come charging into the room, using Suga as a human shield and yelling

“BACK AWAY FROM THE BLONDE!” yells Kuroo, looking rabid.

“BLONDE, BACK AWAY!” yells Tanka at the same time, looking just as horrifying. 

Hinata can't contain his laughter as he starts laughing hysterically. 

Kenma finds this mildly entertianing, shown by the apperance of his smile. 

Kageyama looks up for a second and rolls his eyes at his Senpai’s antics, lying back down. 

Kenma bobs down next to Kageyama with what looks a bit like a blush. 

“You seem like the most reasonable one in the room” he hears Kenma say quietly.

Kageyama just sighs and nods

“Yeah, well, when we're surrounded by these idiots, that's not difficult” he replies with a bit of a grin. 

Kenma smiles at him and Kagayama understands why that's such an amazing sight. 

Kageyama blinks is if making sure it's real.

“You're smile is amazing” he says without thinking, his brain to mouth filter short circuiting in this moment of witnessing something like this.

The previous yelling and screaming of his senpai has faded, though Kageyama realises that's not just because of his focus on Kenma, but also because they'd stopped talking.  
Kageyama also realises that it means they just heard that.

Before he knows it Kuroo runs over and wraps his arms protectively around Kenma, stroking his hair as if he were a a child, Kenma just standing there plainly and taking it, but with a blush.

“My Kenma! All grown up! I couldn't possibly let your delicate ears hear such a brash compliment you dove!” Kuroo all but screams, cradling Kenma.  
Kageyama just groans softly, lying back down. 

“Yeah, cool, have fun with that” Kageyama mutters, closing his eyes.

He quickly feels a shadow on his face and opens his eyes to find Kenma, still held tightly by Kuroo, leaning over him

“Did you mean what you said though?” Kenma asks softly, not looking at Kageyama’s face. 

Kageyama nods slightly and looks at the ceiling above him.

“I.. It wasn't meant to be creepy it just kinda came out...” Kageyama says softly, scared that he'd screwed it all up.

Kuroo’s now looking over Kenma’s head at him as well

“That's nice and all but did you mean it?” He says, already sounding skeptical, as if Kageyama had already failed.

Kageyama sighs, what's he got left to lose?

“Yeah, I did” he says softly, bracing himself for laughter or some kind of mockery.

He did not, however, brace himself for Kenma being practically thrown on top of him.

“Offt!” Kageyama grunts, reflexively wrapping his arms around Kenma, who glares daggers at Kuroo, who's grinning.

“Aww, look at you two puddin'! You're so cu~ute” Kuroo dotes, looking genuinely excited.

Kenma rolls his eyes and looks up a Kageyama 

“Sorry about him. He's an idiot.” Kenma says, shaking his head.

Kageyama chuckles

“So is Hinata. It's okay, we all make mistakes sometimes” he says with a chuckle. 

He sees Hinata pout at him as Tanaka starts laughing.

Kageyama chuckles and holds his arm out to Hinata, making space for him, which he immidately appears in, causing the other boys to laugh.

Kageyama chuckles and kisses Hinata’s hair, who grins and tilts his head up, sticking his tongue out at Kageyama.

He then promptly pushea away from him

“Kageyama you sti~ink!” Hinata complains, glaring at him.

Kageyama rolls his eyes

“And whose fault do you think that is dumbass? I haven't gone into the onsen yet!” he complains, glaring at Hinata.

Kenma chuckles softly 

“I'll go with you if you want?” he offers, looking up at Kageyama, who nods dumbly under that angelic smile.

“And don't you have some homework you need help with Hinata?” Tanaka quickly cuts in before Hinata can offer to go with them.

Hinata tilts his head slightly and goes to say no, but quickly understands his Senpai’s meaningfyl look, nodding feverently.  
Kuroo chuckles softly and Kageyama just kinda feels confused, unaware of their plan to give him and Kenma time alone. 

Kenma shrugs 

“Okay, well, we'll be back later then” Kenma says, getting up and pulling Kageyama with him, who quickly blushes a bit when Kenma doesn't let go of his hand, leading him out of the room.

“Tanaka? You're cunning, I'll give you that” says Kuroo as the boys leave

Tanaka shrugs 

“Gotta watch out for my kouhai don't I? I signed up for it, gotta follow it through now” he says, sounding more thoughtful than Tanaka had any right to.  
Suga chooses this moment to get up and pull Tanaka into a hug

“You're sounding more and more like a senpai everyday” he says, knowing that Tanaka’s eyes are sparkling.

“Who knows, some alone time could be good for them” Kuroo says with a smile, his arms crossed behind his head, watching the pair.

Hinata smiles happily 

“I hope so”

***

Kenma walks slightly ahead of Kageyama, but that’s not what’s bothering. 

Firstly, they’re still holding hands, which is already impairing Kageyama’s ability to think. 

Secondly, Kenma volunteered to go with him alone to the onsen.

Kageyama’s brain was using like 17 blackboards in his head to try and work it out, but to be honest, his brain never really was that good at work.

Though, while he’s mulling all this over, at some point, they’d arrived at the onsen, Kenma looking at Kageyama expectantly. 

Kageyama blinks and blushes a bit, wilting slightly under Kenma’s expectant gaze.

“I asked where your clothes and stuff are” repeats Kenma, seeming expectant and kinda innocent.

Kageyama points to one of the lockers and murmurs stuff incoherently, though Kenma understands and quickly moves, putting his stuff in the locker next to his.

Kageyama smiles and quickly packs his stuff into his locker, following Kenma into the onsen.

They hadn’t really talked very much, though Kageyama got the distinct feeling that that was going to change.  
Kenma had a quick shower, having already had one, and quickly moved into the bath, waiting for Kageyama there, who took literally as long as possible in the shower.

Internally, he covered things that Kenma would probably bring up.

1) This whole relationship-type-thing.

And dear god did Kageyama dread that.

He didn’t feel like he deserved Hinata, let alone Kenma, he’d literally end up being an anxious mess the whole time and he didn’t much fancy that.  
And what if Kenma didn’t want anything? That’d break Hinata’s heart, and Kageyama couldn’t possibly let that happen.

2) ..Volleyball? 

Okay, so Kageyama already knew which one they’d talk about, he just didn’t really wanna think about it. 

So, volleyball. His team now knows he can spike. Which is a fun little fact he would rather they didn’t know, but it was too late now.  
He didn’t have the stamina to sustain it and he didn’t really want to, to be honest.  
He was okay with setting and blocking, it was what he was good at, after all, something he could rival Oikawa at, even.

Some splashes from the next room remind him that someone else is around, and pulls him from the showers and into the baths.

He sees Kenma sitting around the rim of the bath.

Kageyama quickly walks over and tentatively sits next to him, Kenma quickly turning to look at him with a smile

“Hey” he says softly, his cheeks slightly flushed from the hot water.

“Hey” Kageyama replies softly.

They sit in what Kenma believes is a companionable silence, but Kageyama feels nothing but tense next to him.

“HeySoUmHowDoYouFeelAboutThisWholeYouMeHinataThingHuhPrettyWeirdIsn’tIt” Kageyama says really fast, trying to sound chill, but really only sounding really nervous, not  
bettered by the nervous laughter following his outburst.

Kenma blinks and bumps his shoulder against Kageyama’s

“I mean, I don’t have a problem with it.” he says softly, looking up at Kageyama with a worried expression, biting his lip “Unless you do, of course” He says quickly, unconsciously tensing up and moving away from him a little.

Kageyama blushes a bit and shakes his head

“N-no, not really, I just... Didn’t want you to feel pressured by Hinata or ‘fate’ or whatever...” Kageyama says, fiddling with his fingers.

Kenma shrugs a bit

“I like Hinata. But there was no point in even telling because he’s so insanely in love with you. But, uh, if it’s okay with you I mean, I.. I’d like to try it. You’re not quite as stoic and put together as you seem, are you?” says Kenma, looking up from his hands and at Kageyama with a quiet determination that he found rather endearing. 

Kageyama sighs softly in relief and leans towards Kenma, resting their shoulders against each other.

“Not quite.” Kageyama says softly, closing his eyes.

Kenma shifts a bit and leans his head against Kageyama’s shoulder 

“And I’m okay with that. No one is ever quite the same as they appear.” Kenma says cryptically, and Kageyama feels him relax slightly.

***

Eventually they deem themselves suitably soaked and get out, going back into the changing rooms and quickly getting changed.

Though, instead of going back to their rooms, they just sit together around the corner where Kageyama had been earlier.

Kenma sits in Kageyama’s lap as he attempts to plat Kenma’s hair, with a lot of dry, running commentary from Kenma and a lot of sharp comebacks from Kageyama, Kenma’s  
commentary eventually becoming quieter and fading away, until he fell asleep to the comforting feeling of Kageyama’s fingers in his hair.

Kageyama, when he eventually notices, just holds him to his chest, falling asleep with him.

***  
About half an hour later, Suga realises he hasn’t had a bath yet and venturers down for a quick shower, vowing to have a bath tommorow. 

That, and Kenma and Kageyama hadn’t come back yet and people were starting to worry they’d drowned. 

Suga knows exactly where they are when he rounds the corner, hearing the soft snores of the pair and quickly finding them snuggled up.

After taking a few cute pictures for Tanaka, Kuroo, Hinata and, of course, the pair, he wakes then up with a smirk.

“Okay boys, time for bed I think. I reckon if you ask nicely enough Daichi and Kuroo will let you sleep in the same room” He says, pulling them up, both boys sleepily rubbing their eyes and yawning, walking like zombies towards their rooms. 

Suga chuckles as he sends off the group text and walks into the baths.

Hey, at least they got everything worked out, he supposes. 

What, really, could be better than that right now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> God  
> So  
> Tired
> 
> HOPE YOU LIKED IT THOUGH!!  
> <3  
> Please leave me a comment to tell me what you guys thought!


	13. Back to the game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 4/11/16
> 
> Some indevigual volleyball skill workout, with some more sad Kageyama backstory (yay??)

The next morning, the coaches decided to break people up into groups based on the talents they either wanted to perfect and polish, or work on. 

Kageyama quickly gave in to Kuroo’s pressure to join the spikers, all thanks to yesterday’s practice matches.

‘Wait, had that really been yesterday?’ Kageyama asked himself, shaking his head in disbelief. He can’t believe that all the stuff that’d happened with Kenma had all happened in one night.

Kenma had ended up sleeping somewhere in between Kageyama and HInata’s futons, but it had ended with all three of them piled on Kageyama’s, and a lot of pre-wake up pictures from Suga, followed by promises to send them to all three.

It was simple, everyone was in one of four categories, spikers, setters, blockers or receivers. Each group was then assigned a coach or lead third year in order to structure and lead the morning practice. 

The spikers were given Ukai, who was extremely eager to work with Kageyama in a spiking capacity. 

As a big group, they did some running and stretches to warm up, followed by some individual stretches for the groups. 

Mainly, Kageyama knew, they’d be working on stamina. 

Kageyama already knew that this was a whole different kind of stamina than he was used to using. 

Ukai was hitting the ball up, then the spiker would hit it, and he’d then critique it based on their performance. 

Of course, because of who Kageyama was, every criticism had already been earmarked and steps to combat it had already been planned out. 

Though his middle school notes on himself were slightly outdated, they held up for the main part. 

‘Too showy’, ‘Not enough arch’, ‘Not enough power’, ‘Too much of a run up’, just to name a few. 

They all had Oikawa’s voice attached to them as well, the one who tried to ‘help’ him as a spiker, but only drove him into a depression over it. 

Feeling useless in volleyball was no good for anyone, and Kageyama found it particularly harming due to his emotional reliance on the sport.

So when he was on his 6th turn, he ran up, hit the ball, and the moment it left his hand he spouted out more criticisms, faster than Ukai, muttering them to himself. 

Ukai had expected this, but had no idea how to pull the boy out of his own head short of literally pulling on his hair.

Pulling back slightly, Ukai called Kageyama over, asking him to set for them quickly. 

Kageyama quickly did as asked without questions. 

With each jump, Ukai watched Kageyama mutter criticisms so quietly he could barely see his lips move. 

After the second round, Ukai decided to pull Kageyama up on this. 

“Kageyama, please, if you feel like you have something important to say, I’d like to hear it” He says loudly, watching the boy.

Though his whole face flushes, he doesn’t back down.

“Kuroo holds back in order to maintain his ability to spike for the whole game, however his power suffers for it and it renders his spikes less lethal than before. Tanaka needs to focus on less on looks and more on controlling the direction of the ball and its precision.” Kageyama says, looking straight at Ukai.

“Oh yeah, and what about yourself, hotshot?!” Tanaka says angrily, obviously frustrated by his criticisms. 

Kageyama sighs and twirls the ball he was holding in his hands, looking closely at it.

“I need to learn to curve my arm by more than 17.3 degrees, but less than 17.9 degrees consistently. I need to have more power to unleash, it’s not that I’m not using my power, it’s that I don’t have any to use in the first place. I also need to jump higher if I’ve got any hope of trying to overcome any half decent blockers we face. I’ve also gotta work on my timing and reading of situations and instant responses to them. Oh, and my recovery when my spike goes back up, it takes 4.8 seconds for me to get back into running and responding to the ball, but I need to work it down to 2.6, at a minimum.” he word vomits, thinking of things Oikawa said to him in middle school and slightly altering the times and distances to meet with him now.

Everyone in their little section is looking at him as if he’d grown a second, deformed head and it was the saddest thing they’d ever seen.

Granted, his life probably was the saddest thing they’d ever seen. 

Kageyama shook his head and quickly looked up at Ukai 

“That what you wanted?” he asks confidently, feeling internally strong, no matter the fragile things that’d just happened.

Ukai slowly nods his head, as if acknowledging that he’d been spoken to, more than agreeing with the statement.

Kageyama nods his head slightly and throws the ball up for himself, hitting it over with slight corrections to his form, getting closer to his ‘perfect’ spike. 

He shakes his head, hitting it into the back left corner. 

“Too much power..” he mutters as it lands just the other side of the lines, staring at his hand as if it had betrayed him.

The other spikers watch him as he mentally berates himself and makes internal adjustments.

This boy, this monster, he was the future of their teams and god damn it if that didn’t scare the shit out of Tanaka, even if it was in a good way.

Kageyama quickly snapped out of this trance of self-criticism when he heard the promising sound of food, quickly rushing away to get some protein-specific food he loved.

***

Of course, that’s just what his senpai thought. 

In reality, he was just going to find the sweet stuff, eat enough to drown out his thoughts, then go back in, work for all of practice, and then do another few hours once practice was over, then beat himself up over every little thing he’d ever screwed up until he literally fell unconscious. 

Basically, just another Sunday really.

Except he doubted Suga would let that happen, let alone Hinata...

But he could dream, couldn’t he?

***

He quickly powered back into the gym, walking straight over to the spikers and waiting in line to spike. 

They quickly moves onto stamina training, moving in the gym to work on strength and stamina. 

Pairing off, Kageyama got paired with some second year and put on weights, Tanaka and Kuroo quickly snatching each other up.

Kageyama started as spotter, helping the guy out as well as he could, the aim of this session to see how long they could go without break, but also to know their own limits and  
intensity, as everyone was different. 

The second year went for a bit, kinda in the middle of the pack, not really in front, not really behind, but just kinda there, much like him himself really.

Kageyama was next, going against Tanaka, and though it wasn’t a ‘competition’ per se, it really was, everyone comparing times and weights.

Kageyama ignored the rest of the world, retreating into his little shell. 

Maybe the burn from this would be enough to bring him back out of this little slump. To be perfectly honest, Kageyama hated his semi-permanent depressed state, it really didn’t do anything for him. 

But none the less, he lifted the weights, starting some slow compressions with some careful advice and tentative encouragement from his second year partner. 

Kageyama kept his breathing even, slowly moving his arms and reveling in the burn he was experiencing. 

Quickly he was speeding up, despite the cautious words of his spotter that that “wasn’t the best idea”. There were ‘whoop's from the quickly forming crowd, as well as hushed tones of amazement.

Kageyama, though, was quickly feeling the burn of this and put the bar down, to a loud chorus of disappointment, Ukai overpowering them all with the order to ‘get back to it!’.

Kageyama reluctantly opened his eyes at this point, not really noticing that he’d closed them at any point, seeing a rather concerned and nervous looking second year and a rather  
annoyed Tanaka 

“God damn first year, showing up his senpai like that” he mutters, walking past and glaring at Kageyama.  
Kuroo laughs softly, looking over at him.

Kageyama smirks at him 

“If it’s that easy to show you up, then you’re either barely trying or not worth the effort.” Kageyama says with an easy smile that Tanaka sees with a slightly malicious grin. 

Kageyama ignores it and quickly moves on to the next machine, helping the second year expertly with his exercises.

***

Lunch and the rest of practice was a blur of the good kind of hurt, mixed with exhaustion and self loathing. 

Hinata practically dragged Kageyama out of the gym the moment the coaches called practice to an end, though Kageyama really wasn’t in the mood for any of this. 

All he wanted was to practice, and if he couldn’t do that, all he wanted to do was have a nice, long bath and then go to bed.  
But, apparently, Hinata had different plans.

“Now, Kenma went ahead, we’re gonna go into the Nekoma room and play some games with him kay?” Hinata says, looking cutely up at Kageyama, who just nods dumbly, following the little boy closely.

After they quickly change out of their practice clothes, Kageyama quietly lies on his futon, waiting for Hinata. With his eyes closed.

After what feels like seconds, but is probably more like minutes, Kageyama is woken up by a fire being lit in his side. 

Well, it’s hot like a fire, and orange like a fire, but it’s far more pleasant and less painful.

He smiles slightly when his sleep addled brain realises that it is, in fact, Hinata in his side, snuggling up to him. 

Hinata grins up at him and puts down his phone, having obviously been texting someone, whom he can only assume is Kenma.

He blushes a bit and pulls Hinata closer, nuzzling his hair and he curls close.

Kenma quickly shows up at the door, quickly padding over to the pair, who quickly make a small, Kenma-sized gap between them.

Kageyama had no trouble going from nuzzling Hinata’s hair to nuzzling Kenma’s cute, bleached hair. 

Eh, maybe they could be as cute as Suga had so often claimed in the past 24 hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY  
> I'M SORRY!! I'M SORRY FOR THE WAIT, I DIDN'T MEAN TO!!  
> I WAS SICK, THEN I HAD WRITERS BLOCK, THEN I HAD BOTH AND... I'M SORRY!!  
> I REALLY LOVE YOU ALL!! PROMISE!! 
> 
> NO, IT'S NO LONGER THAN NORMAL  
> I'M SORRY, MY BRAIN NO LIKELY AT THE MOMENT!! 
> 
> {*cough cough* exams *cough cough* }
> 
> (On a side note, now will be updating Fridays [my time] cause god, Tuesday was just stressful AF)
> 
> PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT!!  
> I NEED THE INSPIRATION TO KEEP GOING RIGHT NOW!!


	14. Cutesy life as normal (on a training camp anyway)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 17/11/16
> 
> Kenma, Hinata and Kageyama are cuties

The boys hadn’t fallen asleep, more like they were all just resting there with their eyes closed.  
And just didn’t notice when their rowdy Karasuno teammates showed up, sure, that’s possible.  
Sure, that’s a thing.  
And they just let Suga take tons of embarrassing pictures.  
Why would they want to set them as background pictures on their phones later? What? That’s ridiculous.

In all honesty though, Kenma honestly couldn’t care less about this weird power play between his now-boyfriends and their team mates, he only really cared about the two boys who’d let him so easily into their relationship.  
He honestly just expected it to be a really, really good dream, that he’d wake up any minute now, probably being snuggled to death by Kuroo on the first night of camp.  
But he got the kinda stomach churning feeling that no, this was real, which is almost more painful than if it wasn’t.  
Because now he had to figure out how to bring up... 

... Okay, so it was no secret that Kenma wasn’t particularly interested in people, much preferring to spend his time with his game consoles and Kuroo than people.  
But, and he’s figured this out in one of many, MANY interrogation sessions from Kuroo, he asexual.  
He literally didn’t see sex as a thing that could involve him or that he wished to partake in. Kisses, yes, snuggling, definitely, yes!  
But any further than that and Kenma wasn’t even remotely interested. 

But he was terrified that Hinata and Kageyama wouldn’t want him around if he was like that, I mean, who would? Why would they want him around if he didn’t want to do anything, because obviously everyone would want to. What was wrong with him?! 

Kenma was beating himself up for this and unconsciously curled into Kageyama, gripping his shirt and nuzzling his neck in an attempt to seek comfort.  
It helped a little, but when Hinata curled closer and nuzzled the back of his neck, that was when Kenma really started to relax.

Kageyama felt the warmth if Kenma curl closer and lazily opened his eyes, wrapping an arm tighter around Kenma’s waist and nuzzling his hair slightly in his mostly sleep deprived state.

Kenma couldn’t help but smile slightly into Kageyama’s shirt, feeling like maybe he could belong here.

***

Dachi eventually woke up the trio, complaining that they were stinking up the room and at least needed to shower.  
They all grumbled awake in the way teenage boys do.  
Kageyama looked like murder incarnate, Hinata looked eager and ready for anything, and Kenma looked like a more-than-half-asleep cutie, rubbing his eyes like the cutie he was.  
Hinata jumped up quickly gathered up his and Kageyama’s bath stuff, yelling over his shoulder that he’d meet the other two down there.

In reality, he was trying to give them time to get used to each other without seeming too obvious.  
Now, to literally everyone else on the team, this was the least subtle thing in the world.  
However, they also knew how completely oblivious Kageyama was, causing them to think he didn’t suspect anything. Kenma was more alert than Kageyama, but just barely.  
But, in his sleepy state he saw no problems with any of this. 

Kageyama was the first one to become human, getting up and pulling Kenma up with him, due to the blond’s reluctance to let go of him.

 

Kageyama sighs and picks up the other, walking toward the Nekoma room in order to get Kenma’s stuff for a bath.  
Upon entering he saw something he deemed fundamentally wrong.  
Tanaka was there.  
Sitting in Kuroo’s lap.  
It looked like they were playing some kind of more-intense version of go-fish.  
But.  
Tanaka looked quite comfy right there and geez, Kageyama had never seen his Senpai be that close to anyone except Nishinoya-senpai.

He quickly went over to Kenma’s futon and put him down, sitting next to him and waiting for him.  
Kenma slowly went through his bag, getting out a change of clothes and then crawling back into Kageyama’s hold, who groaned softly in mock annoyance, but still easily lifted the small bleach-blonde and walked towards the onsen. 

***

Kenma felt like he’d just been thrown into the most unpleasant wake up call when he woke up groggily in the onsen shower room.  
It was actually the most disgustingly hot he’d really woken up in, and he’d lived in Tokyo during a particularly bad summer. 

 

He looked around, finding Kageyama next to him, waiting for him to wake up, entertaining himself with some game on his phone.  
“Where’s Shoyou?” Kenma hears himself ask, sitting up a bit and looking around.  
Kageyama jumps a bit in surprise, locking him phone.  
“H-He’s already in there... I was gonna wait for you to wake up before I went in” Kageyama says softly, seeming really tired as well but wanting to stay awake for Kenma, who felt bad about sleeping in this room with Kageyama there.

“Sorry for keeping you out here, you can go in without me if you want, I’ll meet you in there in a minute” Kenma say softly, looking up at Kageyama.  
Now, while Kageyama generally has a hard time reading people, Kenma was basically a slab of emotionless concrete. 

But this one, Kageyama saw through it and saw the slight insecurity in his body language.  
In the most casual way he could, Kageyama grabbed Kenma’s hands  
“I’ll wait for you...” Kageyama says softly, looking down at Kenma’s hands.  
This, however, doesn’t stop him from seeing the slight red tinge to Kenma’s cheeks. 

 

He smiled as he turned away, finding the basket Hinata had left his clothes and stuff in, quickly adding his current clothes to the pile and waiting for Kenma, following the boy into the shower and onsen room, seeing Hinata sitting on a rock and talking with some Nekoma first years, smiling and just kinda chatting as if this was something that happened everyday.  
Kenma barely seemed to notice, quickly showering and getting in with Hinata.  
Kageyama smiled a bit, at least he wouldn’t be the only one jealous of Hinata’s easy to get along with attitude and people hanging around him.

***

Okay. Okay this was it, he could do it. No one could overhear. It was probably the safest time.  
Taking a deep breath, Kenma turned and faced his partly dressed boyfriends, clearing his throat and immediately earning the attention of the pair.  
“What’s up Kenma?” Hinata asks, his shirt temporarily forgotten in his attention to his boyfriend.  
Kageyama pursued a similar approach, finishing putting his shirt on and quickly turning to face Kenma.  
He looked between them both  
“Um, w-well, we haven’t really had chance to talk about w-what we a-are yet” Kenma mumbles, internally kicking himself for wussing out in the last second. 

Hinata and Kageyama both looked at each other, then back at Kenma with an almost comic blush.

“Uh, w-well,we’re together aren’t we? In a.. Polyamorous relationship?” Hinata asks, looking at Kagayama quickly to make sure he got the pronunciation right, Kageyama nodding slightly towards Kenma.  
Kenma blinks and looks at both of them.

“U-um, well then you sh-should probably know I.. I’m not... I’m asexual” says Kenma, glaring down at the ground.

Hinata and Kageyama just look at him confused, and Hinata is the first one to speak up  
“U-uh, without seeming rude, what does that.. Mean, exactly?” he says tentatively, wincing a bit at his ignorance.

“To me it’s... It’s basically where you don’t really think sexual intercourse is a thing you want to be involved in... Like, kissing and snuggling is okay but... that’s about it..” Kenma says softly, fiddling with his hands.

Kageyama clears his throat  
“I mean, I didn’t know that had an actual name.. That was just how I felt” Kageyama says softly, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck and looking at Kenma,

 

Kenma blinked and looked at Kageyama, his smile blindingly bright before he threw himself at Kageyama who wrapped him arms around Kenma’s shoulders.

Hinata smiled at Kageyama, hugging them both from the sides and they were just cute little fiends, but in all honesty, to them, it was so much more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SO SORRY FOR NO UPDATE LAST WEEK  
> I WAS SICK  
> AND THEN I HAD LOTS AND LOTS OF EXAMS  
> AND IT WAS HELL
> 
> I IS SORRY AND THIS IS LIKE AVERAGE LENGTH AND I IS SORRY, CAN WE JUST PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED?!  
> <3 Legit though, sorry guys :(
> 
> Also, the lack of comments on the last chapter kinda hurt and didn't help with the motivation thing...  
> Some comments might help me actually get something out next week... so please? Some thoughts on the last 2 chapters? Pleeeeeeeeeease?! 
> 
> Thanks for reading!! <3


	15. Nightmares are no fun...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 25/11/16  
> Hinata isn't doing so well with his emotions...

Kageyama almost fell over for his lack of ability to remain standing with the unexpected weight of Kenma, not that he was complaining.  
Kageyama quickly adjusted in order to compensate for the unexpected close hold from Kenma. 

Kageyama knew he was beaming and honestly felt so much closer to him like this, holding him close with his face open and revealing in his happiness.

 

Hinata pouted and looked at them, feeling left out. 

 

Through his happy delirium he could see Hinata pouting in the background and Kageyama suddenly got the distinct feeling this was going to be a reoccurring theme for all of them but lacked enough negativity to care in that moment.

Eventually Kenma let go of him and Kageyama put him down, though Kenma didn’t deem not touching Kageyama a thing he wanted to do, instead taking his hand and snuggling close into his side, even when they were standing up. 

At this point, Hinata had put on the rest of his clothes and was waiting for them impatiently. 

Kageyama sighed at his impatience and grabbed his hand, tugging him closer and walking out of the onsen, back up into their room.  
Hinata picked up a bit after that, bouncing along beside Kageyama as per usual.  
Arriving back in their room, the boys collapsed and almost immediately fell asleep, Kenma once again cradled between the pair.

 

Hinata dreamed that night, dreamed of a time, maybe in the holidays, when they were all together again, this time in Kageyama’s apartment together.  
They were all lying in Kageyama’s bed together, snuggling together and laughing and giggling like idiots, and just generally having fun. 

But they quickly moved onto soft, shared kisses, which Hinata was more than happy to oblige to, kissing both of the others. However, they slowly moved from shared kisses to Kageyama and Kenma making out without a thought for Hinata, who was tried to interrupt them but failed to get anything more than a hand on his chest to push him away. 

 

He whimpered and tried to pull Kageyama off Kenma  
“H-Hey, I’m here too you know” he mumbles, pulling on Kageyama’s arm.  
He pulls away from Kenma long enough to laugh at Hinata and stroke Kenma’s hair possessively.  
“Yeah, but you don’t matter anywhere near as much as he does. I need to make sure he feels welcome, even if you think we can function as a group” Kageyama says, smirking uncharacteristically at Hinata and leaning down to kiss Kenma possessively.

Hinata paled and whimpered pathetically  
“T-that’s not funny Kageyama!” he whines softly, feeling like he’s about to cry.  
Kageyama pulls back from the kiss and smirks against Kenma’s lips, laughing cruelly  
“It’s not meant to be, you’re so pathetic I can’t help it. You’re so desperate for our attention you’ll do anything.” he says as he possessively pulls Kenma closer to him. 

 

“B-but you’re my boyfriend too..” Hinata says weakly, feeling as if he was falling. Kageyama just smirks and chuckles, as if it were a funny joke  
“Uh huh, sure. I mean, I’ve got Kenma now, with the same interests as me, why would either of us need you anymore?” he asks humorously, shaking his head, as if it was a dumb idea.  
“Why would either of us need you?” he says as Kenma snuggles closer against him. 

Hinata felt like he was falling, and Kageyama’s cruel smile and Kenma seemed more and more unobtainable as he struggled to try and reach them, even as he slipped further and further out of reach.

 

He was shaken awake and heard screaming.  
It took him a minute to recognise it as his own, though that didn’t make it stop.  
At this point he couldn’t see, all he could see was the nightmare, of Kenma and Kageyama floating out of his reach.  
His sobs were interrupted with deep soul destroying, chest collapsing sobs.  
If you know what it’s like, that description doesn’t do it justice, and if you haven’t you’re a lucky sod that can’t even imagine it.

He heard someone calling out to him, he was vaguely aware of hands on his shoulders and the shouts of people trying to wake him up, but he couldn’t stop, the pain still too fresh and heavy in his heart.

 

He felt himself being shook as his screams petered out, his eyes opening widely and quickly taking in the scene around him.  
Daichi and Suga were right in front of him, trying to shake him awake with Tanaka right next to them, staring at his Kouhai anxiously. 

 

He eventually stopped making noises and saw the boys in front of him, crying and leaning forward, relying on Daichi’s hands on his shoulders. 

“Hinata, if you can hear me, I need you to tell me where we are. Hinata, I need you to talk to me, please. I need you to respond” was Suga’s soft cooing nearby his ear, in an effort to get a response out of him.

Hinata responds with a soft whimper and a mumble in Suga’s general direction.  
This causes Daichi to stop shaking him and Suga to lean closer  
“Hinata, come on, talk to me Hinata, say something please” he says softly, sliding his hands into Hinata’s hair in an attempt to calm him down  
“I-I’m okay” he grits out, probably the worst lie he’d ever told. He felt exhausted, even though he’d just woken up. He felt like he could sleep for weeks and not be recovered.

Tanaka hits him softly in the head  
“Idiot, don’t lie to us! You woke up screaming and sobbing and we’ve been trying to wake you up for 10 minutes!” he said, sounding like an overconcerned, cranky older brother.

Hinata just shrugged, leaning into Daichi’s hold and closing his eyes  
“I’m tired..” he mumbles, Daichi going to tell him something as he blacks out.

 

***

He woke up a little while later, cradled in Daichi’s lap with Suga trying to read but watching him closely and Tanaka sitting with Kuroo at the side, watching him.  
Tanaka was sitting in Kuroo’s lap, sitting so one of his shoulders was resting against Kuroo’s chest, and Kuroo was leaning down and whispering in Tanaka’s ear, the pair having a whispered conversation, but Tanaka rarely taking his eyes off Hinata.  
Daichi was leaning up against a wall and cradling Hinata in his lap.  
Hinata must’ve made some kind of a noise because Suga and Tanaka were on him within an instant, Suga trying to make sure he was still calm and Tanaka just holding his hand, Kuroo sitting right behind him and resting his head on Tanaka's shoulder, his hands winding around his waist in an attempt at offering comfort. 

 

Hinata leaned his head back against Daichi’s chest, his eyes closed  
“Why aren't you all at practice?” he asks croakily, his throat raw for all the screaming last night. 

 

Daichi and Suga shared one of those ‘concerned parent’ looks, before he felt Daichi shrug and Suga sigh

 

“After you woke everyone up last night, no one could really go back to sleep so the coaches cancelled practice today... almost everyone is still practicing, though some are in the other room... like your hysterical boyfriends, for example.” Suga says, trying to seem sympathetic, but a small, comforting smile on his face.

 

Hinata whimpers softly and shakes his head, leaning back against Daichi.

 

Tanaka looks up at Hinata  
“What did you have a nightmare about?” he asks softly, his eyes looking very dreary.  
Hinata whimpers and looks at their linked hands  
“K-Kenma and Kageyama... leaving me... because why would they need me when they have each other? They're so much better together without me here...” he mumbles softly, tearing up a bit.

 

Kuroo was the first to react, namely, by slapping Hinata across the face

 

“You're actually an idiot! How can you not see how much those two are in love with you?!” he rants at Hinata, obviously furious at the mere suggestion.  
“I don't know about Kageyama, but Kenma has been in love with you since he met you! He's talked himself out of telling you every single time because he saw how obviously and clearly in love with each you two are! And now you're telling me you think they're gonna run off together without you?!” Kuroo all but yells at Hinata, obviously overly angered by Hinata’s attitude.

 

Hinata just kinda whimpers, sitting back against Daichi  
“You asked what my nightmare was about, it's hardly my fault” Hinata mumbles, closing his eyes.  
“Hinata, it's not going to do anything good if you just mope around and ignore how obviously insecure you are, you three are just going to fall apart, and I'm not letting you do that to my best friend or Kageyama!” Kuroo says, obviously frustrated but using Tanaka’s touch to not hit Hinata again. 

 

Hinata just looked at Daichi, who was looking down at him like a concerned parent.

 

“Things aren't gonna get better without communication Hinata, geez, if you were feeling so insecure you were having nightmares then you should've probably talked to everyone a lot sooner” Daichi says, sounding like the dad that gives out reluctant but decent relationship advice.

 

Hinata just nods a little, knowing Daichi was right but not wanting to do anything about it.

 

“C-Can I sleep some more and talk to them in a bit?” he asks sleepily and Daichi sighs, slipping him into Suga’s lap

 

“Fine, but promise me you'll go talk to them after okay?” says Suga, holding onto Hinata, who nods slightly against Suga’s chest.

 

He quickly dozes off, resolving to talk to Kageyama and Kenma when he woke up.

 

He kinda wished he wouldn't

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M SORRY FOR THE PAIN  
> I'LL MAKE IT BETTER NEXT CHAPTER I PROOMISE!! MAYBE EVEN SOONER THAN NORMAL (though don't count on it)
> 
> Pleeease comment and tell me what you think!! It's 100% my only motivatio for this story, imma be honest <3 THANK FOR READING!! <3


	16. Hinata gets by with a little help from his Senpai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 7/12/16  
> Kageyama and Kenma are snuggling cuties and Hinata gets help from multiple Senpai to get some kind of self confidence back
> 
> (Warning: Lots of POV switching in this... hehe.. he.. sorry)

Kageyama was sitting with Kenma in his lap, stroking his hair lazily. 

 

At this point, this third years had kicked the pair out of the room and they had nothing to do except keep each other company and wait for Hinata to come talk to them.

 

However, this is not what either wanted to be doing.

 

Kageyama wanted to be downstairs working out his frustrations with extreme power spiking and Kenma was trying to work out what his most rage-consuming handheld game was. 

 

But neither were doing these things, they were sitting in each other's company, trying to comfort the other with physical presence, as neither could really think straight enough to work out how they could comfort each other with words.

 

They drifted in and out of sleep on Kenma’s futon in his room, waiting to know something about Hinata. 

 

Not only did they have no idea what had sparked Hinata’s nightmares, they had no idea of the content of them, their Senpai having ejected everyone from the room the moment they got Hinata conscious.

 

This, of course, wasn’t making Kageyama or Kenma feel any more secure in their relationship, feeling as if Hinata must’ve been hiding something, a feeling or actions, that was pretty bad if it caused that kind of a reaction. 

 

They heard quiet conversation coming from the room next to theirs, though ignored it, staying rolled up together in a tense but companionable silence.  
They were spooning, Kageyama curled around Kenma as he played one of his many handheld games that Kuroo had given him back in order to try and keep his mind off Hinata while he was out.

 

Kageyama was lazily watching him play over his shoulder, his arm around Kenma’s stomach in an attempt to comfort the other boy.

 

Though they hadn’t been close before, Kageyama had already noticed how responsive to touch Kenma was, and how much the boy liked quiet companionship, both things Kageyama was content to offer, especially right now. 

 

Kenma, on the other hand, was using his video game in an attempt to quell his anxieties about this whole ordeal.  
Maybe he shouldn’t of accepted the offer to join the pair.  
Maybe he should’ve made them all talk more about stuff.  
Maybe he shouldn’t of slept with them, or at least kept his distance and let Kageyama and Hinata still be a couple. 

 

But then he felt Kageyama’s arm tighten possessively around him, and felt him shift to stroke Kenma’s hair, and he felt that maybe, this might just be where he was meant to be.  
Kageyama certainly seemed to think so, and maybe that could make it okay again.

 

Kageyama was trying really hard not to put it all down to his fault again.  
If he hadn’t of been there, maybe Kenma and Hinata could be stable in their relationship and they wouldn’t have to worry about him, no matter how much it would hurt him to leave, it would be worth it to stop hurting Hinata and Kenma, in Kageyama’s eyes anyway.

 

But as Kenma pressed back against his chest and tucked himself under his chin, holding the game up and at a better angle for Kageyama to see, Kageyama thought that he might, possibly, fit into this relationship he’d somehow created for himself.

 

And as they both lay there and snuggled together, they both felt like they’d maybe found someone to belong to.

 

But they both also felt like a small, Hinata-shaped hole existed in their hearts, and they were both a little bothered by it, even as they became more comfortable with each other.

 

***

 

Hinata woke up about 20 minutes later, Suga now the comforting presence behind him and Tanaka curled up asleep on a futon with Kuroo, who was looking down at him like he was his whole world.  
Looking at that, Hinata wished someone would look at him like that. 

 

It was at this point he almost slapped himself, he DID have people that looked at him like that! Despite how subtle they thought they were, Hinata often caught Kageyama and Kenma looking at him like that and HOW COULD HE POSSIBLY FORGET THAT?! 

During this revelation of Hinata’s idiotic thoughts, he must’ve groaned or whined or something because Suga was immediately smiling slightly and sitting Hinata up properly. 

 

He lifted his finger to his lips in a ‘shhhh’ motion, nodding his head towards a sleeping Tanaka and overprotective Kuroo.

Hinata blinked a few times and then looked at Suga, raising his eyebrows, to which Suga replied with a shrug.

“Well, how long have they been like... that?” Hinata asks, waving his hand at the pair and remembering earlier when he woke up and Tanaka had been sitting in Kuroo’s lap. 

 

Suga just smirked at him and shrugged 

“No idea, when you woke up screaming, Tanaka was one of the first up and trying to wake you up, and then Daichi and I, and then we got Asahi and Nishinoya to move everyone into the Nekoma room and organise everything there. 

 

The moment the last of our eyes left Kuroo was at the door, demanding entrance. Daichi and I said no, but Tanaka jumped up and practically dragged him in.” Suga smiled motherly, looking at the pair lovingly. 

“Tanaka pulled him right over to you and sat against the wall, sitting with you in his lap and stroking your hair like you were on your deathbed. Kuroo just sat next to him, only responding to him when he talked, which was rarely, otherwise just sitting there with him. 

 

Daichi and I left to try and figure out what was going on with everyone else and when we came back Kuroo had his arm around Tanaka’s shoulders and Tanaka was close into his side, though his attention didn’t waver from you.

 

It wasn’t too long after that that Daichi took you out of his lap so Tanaka could rest, and then you woke up and that happened. 

 

And after you fell asleep again they had a cute little tender conversation and Kuroo dragged Tanaka over to the futon and he fell asleep like that. It’s possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, apart from you, Kageyama and Kenma” Suga finishes, sounding like a proud parent.

 

Hinata smiled throughout Suga’s story, though stiffened when he mentioned Kenma and Kageyama. 

Suga, of course, noticed and turned his attention properly back to Hinata.

 

“Talk to me Hinata, what’s wrong?” he says softly, Hinata finding his full attention kinda suffocating.

 

“I... They... I just... Kenma and Kageyama could be plenty self sufficient without me. They’re probably not even thinking about me right now. They’re probably snuggled up together somewhere alone making out and laughing about how dumb I am” he mumbles, getting quieter but more distraught at the same time.

 

It’s then that he notices that Kuroo is walking towards them.

 

“God, I can’t believe that I’m leaving him just to retell you what I told you earlier.” he mutters angrily, sitting down opposite Hinata, next to Suga

 

“Kenma likes you! Sure, he doesn’t mind Kageyama, but it’s you he’s had feelings for since you met!” he rants, seeming frustrated and just kinda done with this conversation. 

 

“And you’d just be an idiot to not know how eager Kageyama is to please you, he’s like a little puppy who’s so eager to please you. If you can’t see that, you’ve gotta be blind, even Daichi’s been able to see it since day 1.” Suga says with a small chuckle. 

 

Kuroo frowns slightly at the joke and Hinata pouts 

“It’s commonly known that Daichi is the most oblivious person at Karasuno, if not in the world.” Suga explains

 

“We’ve been friends since we were children and it wasn’t until last year that he realised we have the same birthmark. And that would be fine if it was in a spot that was hidden. But it’s on our neck! And he never noticed” Suga chuckles out happily, thinking back to it. 

 

“So, if you manage to be more clueless than Daichi it is no mean feat.” he finishes with a purposeful look at Hinata, who pouts more. 

“So get up and go next door and talk to those two already” Suga finishes happily, smiling at Hinata.  
Hinata’s face suddenly falls and he looks at the ground 

 

“But if they like me so much, why aren’t they in here with me?” he asks quietly, to which Suga sighs and scratches the back of his neck

 

“Well, they were both kinda in shock, so we moved them into the other room with everyone else in an attempt to keep them calm... not sure how well it worked, they seemed okay-ish earlier... Though Kageyama is ignoring a chance to practice so he can’t be doing that great...” Suga says, looking at Hinata.

 

Apparently, at some point during this Tanaka had woken up and walked over, looking slightly strained happy.  
“Get up! Go get ‘em! They’ll be there, waiting for you. I guarantee it, in fact.” Tanaka says, grabbing Hinata’s arms and pulling him up, pushing him towards the door.  
Hinata doesn’t notice the strain in Tanaka’s enthusiasm and grins back at him, bouncing out the door.

 

As the door closes, Tanaka all but collapses on top of Kuroo, not finding the energy to stay upright.

 

“Where’s Daichi?” Tanaka mumbles from his position on top of Kuroo, turning his head slightly to look at Suga, who shrugs with his signature smile.

 

“He went to check up on everyone and get some drinks, though I suspect he got sidetracked by practice, so who knows” Suga says, smiling happily at the thought of Daichi having fun. 

Tanaka nods slightly, closing his eyes, but quickly opening them again when Kuroo slaps his ass  
“Oi! What the bloody hell was that for?!” Tanaka squeals, glaring at Kuroo after moving away from him to sit on his heels.

 

Kuroo chuckles softly and grins lopsidedly at him, opening his eyes  
“You weren’t snuggling nicely and I didn’t want you to fall asleep like that” he rationalises, looking innocently at Tanaka, who grumbles and sits cross legged next to him.

Suga chuckles, watching the exchange  
“I’m gonna go find Daichi and probably do some practice, I’ll see you guys in a few hours” Suga says, getting up and grabbing his sports clothes, quickly leaving the room.

 

As he leaves a grin spreads across Kuroo’s face as he pulls Tanaka into his lap  
“I fucking love Suga” he says with a smirk, kissing Tanaka.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... hey....
> 
> OKAY  
> I'M SORRY I MISSED LAST WEEK'S UPDATE  
> SO THIS WEEK IS DOUBLE UPDATE!! PROMISE!! (Maybe triple, but don't get your hopes up :/ )
> 
> The comments on the last chapter made me feel soooo good, thanks everyone!! <3  
> I really appreciate them and they're honestly what's keeping my motivation up for this fic (cause I have no motivation for anything)
> 
> I LOVE YOU GUYS AND YOUR COMMENTS GIVE ME LIFE  
> GIVE ME SOMETHING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT!! I LOVE HAVING CONVERSATIONS WITH YOU GUYS!!


	17. Emotion filled conversations are good for relationships (AND GOOD FOR MY HEART)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 10/12/16
> 
> Kenma, Kageyama and Hinata have a lil talk with some snuggling

‘Okay, it’s okay, I can do it, they’ll be here, they’ll be waiting for me, it’s okay’ Hinata thought in an attempt to calm himself down before going in, instead scaring himself further and increasing his hesitancy to go into the room. 

 

Eventually though, Asahi and Noya come to the door and open it, quieting as they see Hinata.

“Hey, we thought you wouldn’t come back! Kenma and Kageyama have been worried sick about you!” Noya says, without any filter and his usual bright smile.  
Asahi quickly slaps a hand over his boyfriends’ overactive mouth and smiles weakly at Hinata 

 

“Um, we’ll leave you to it, I’m sure they’re waiting for you” he says, dragging Noya out before he says something truly dumb.

 

Hinata just nodded slightly, swallowing and going into the room, immediately spotting Kageyama and Kenma snuggled up together in the corner, looking plenty content without him. 

 

He walks very slowly towards them, feeling out of place/

 

But, apparently, Kenma and Kageyama didn’t have the same qualms, Kageyama quickly moving to look at him

 

“Hinata?” Kageyama asked unsurely, looking up from his position leaning against Kenma.  
Hinata hadn’t ever seen Kenma look away from his game as quickly as he did then, watching him quickly close the small, handheld console.

 

Kenma basically sprung up, walking straight over to Hinata, leaving Kageyama lying on the futon and wrapping his arms tightly around him.

“I’m sorry if I did something wrong... to make you feel bad or left out... I didn’t mean to... I’m sorry...” Kenma mumbles, holding Hinata tighter than before. 

Hinata just kinda blinks, not expecting Kenma’s apologetic reaction, too stunned to really react, his hands drifting up to Kenma’s back and hugging him as an afterthought more than anything.

 

Kageyama quickly got up, following Kenma and wrapping his arms around the pair and nuzzling Hinata’s hair in an attempt to comfort the boy. 

This was when Hinata heard Tanaka burst into the room, more hyperactive than normal.  
“Hey! Lunch is ready and waiting downstairs!” he bellows, going over to the other second years and jumping on their backs with a grin and pulling them towards the door.

Kuroo was standing, leaning against the doorway and watching his boyfriend jump around like the hyperactive, cute little psycho he is.

 

The trio pulled apart slightly and looked around, Tanaka quickly pulling everyone out of the room with a wink at the boys, thinking he’d of at least bought them an hour or two, planning to push everyone into the Karasuno room instead of the Nekoma.

Kageyama smiled at his senpai happily and put an arm tightly around Hinata’s waist  
“I’m not a big fan of confrontation but we can’t keep going like this... so we need to talk” Kenma says softly into Hinata’s chest, looking up at him. 

 

Hinata pouts but nods slightly and Kageyama just nuzzles his hair with a slight nod. Kenma grabs Hinata’s hands and pulls him and Kageyama back towards the futon, sitting down and pulling Hinata with him.  
Kageyama quickly sits down and Hinata sits in his lap, pulling Kenma closer. 

Hinata pulls Kenma closer, holding both his hands and looking at them instead of either of his boyfriends and finding that easier. 

“Hinata?” Kageyama murmurs softly, nuzzling the side of Hinata’s head and looking at him.

“Hinata, what was your nightmare about?” Kenma asks quietly but bluntly, looking at their hands. 

 

Hinata swallows and shakily starts talking  
“U-um, it was about you and Kageyama... and we were all at his place and snuggling... and... kissing” he says softly, blushing a bit. Kageyama felt a little flustered but knew it wasn’t the end of the story.  
“A-and it was fine... but then you two started ignoring me.. And.. I pointed it out.. And then you two started ignoring me..” he says softly, squeezing Kenma’s hands a little tighter.  
“And then you two drifted away laughing, like you were ab-bove me.. And... yeah...” he mumbles, not realising he was crying before he stopped talking. Kenma was rubbing his hands while Kageyama nuzzled his neck.

“Where do you get these ideas you idiot?” Kageyama mumbles dejectedly, snuggling closer to him. “Why would you think we’d do that? We don’t hate each other, but why would we leave without you?” 

Kenma is just sitting in front of him nodding slightly and playing with his hands. While Kenma doesn’t let go of Hinata’s hands, he isn’t any good with words, never really was.  
Instead, he moves forward and straddles Hinata’s lap, looking straight into his eyes  
“I don’t know why you’d think that was even in the realm of possibility. Have you seen him when he tries to smile? He looks like he’s plotting to kill small children.” Kenma says deadpan, but both boys know he’s joking. 

But still, Kageyama plays along with it, in the hope he’ll see Hinata’s sunbeam-y smile.  
“God, you’re both so mean to me, I don’t see why I stay, geez” he replies, but Hinata can feel him grinning into his neck and knows that he doesn’t really mean it.

But still, he feels too self conscious and seeks the comfort of his boyfriends.

 

“B-But you wouldn’t leave, would you?” Hinata ask softly, leaning against Kageyama with big eyes.  
Kageyama rolls his eyes slightly, kissing Hinata’s temple  
“Of course I wouldn’t dumbass” he murmurs, sounding slightly angry, as if the question shouldn’t of needed a verbal answer.

 

Hinata nods slightly and leans into Kageyama’s hold  
“I know I just... I’m not feeling very confident.. That’s all...” he says very softly, mumbled so only Kageyama can hear him. 

Kenma, of course, heard.

“You know, whispering things between just the two of you doesn’t really make me feel very confident in this.” he says softly, looking at Hinata meaningfully.  
“And especially since you two go to the same school together and see each other everyday and I live on the other side of the prefecture.. You two are going to have to learn how to talk to me because I won’t be able to be there everyday, or even every week to make sure everything is still okay” he says softly but confidently, looking between Kageyama and Hinata. 

Kageyama nods slightly, though it might just have been him nuzzling closer to Hinata. 

“So, we have to have daily phone calls, I’m not gonna complain if you wanna hear some of the stuff he spouts on a daily basis.” Kageyama says in his soft monotone, turning a little to look at Kenma, who nods furiously with a grin, looking at Hinata. 

“Y-yeah well, it’s not that bad, he’s exaggerating” Hinata defends with a pout, holding Kenma tighter.

“I never said I minded, baka...” Kageyama mumbles, smirking as he kisses Hinata’s neck softly.

 

And they just kinda sat like that, snuggling close, Hinata sitting in Kageyama’s lap, who had his arms wrapped tightly around him, with Kenma sitting in Hinata’s lap, facing him with his arms wrapped around his torso and head resting on Hinata’s chest.

They were disturbed by the unmistakable rumbling of highschool boys running upstairs towards their rooms again.  
“We have to remember to talk too! If anything’s bothering you you have to say something about it! Otherwise this will just keep happening!” Hinata says, his excitement level rising.

Kageyama frowns and pulls back with a confused look on his face.  
“You’re the idiot that started this!” Kageyama complains, hitting him softly over the head, to which Kenma laughs softly. 

 

“Yeah, yeah, I know, shut up” he mumbles, nuzzling Kenma’s hair.

It was at this point at which Noya-senpai burst through the door  
“Gu~uys! Lunch is almost over! And coach says we’ll be having a few practice matches afterwards!” he calls out, walking around the floor and then moving around to another area.

 

Hinata groans softly and snuggles down, but Kageyama and Kenma both quickly get up, pulling him with them. 

‘Hey, maybe we could actually have a better, more open relationship...’ Hinata thought, looking at his boyfriends, who were holding hands and waiting for him  
‘But hey, with these two socially awkward cuties, who knows’ he finished, hug tackling the pair and dragging them toward the eating hall with a grin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY  
> I MANAGED TO UPDATE AGAIN!!  
> It's not that best, I know, I'm sorry 3 It's just meant to be cutesy fluff and maybe some exposure to other ships I love to pieces  
> Hehe... I've kinda put myself into a corner with this whole training camp thing... oops :/  
> BUT IT'LL GET BETTER WITH PRACTICE I PROMISE (eyyy xD)  
> Hope you guys enjoy the double update this week!!


	18. We interrupt your regularly scheduled angst with volleyball. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 16/12/16
> 
> All the boys play some volleyball and literally that's it

Kageyama goes into the dining hall with Kenma and Hinata in the dining hall, quickly filling his plate and sitting down with the pair at a small, secluded table for lunch.

Kageyama happily lets Hinata ramble on about something to do with volleyball, Kenma and Kageyama both quietly watching him while eating.

Of course, this did nothing to help with the whirlwind that was Tanaka and Noya, who appeared and were wrapped around their kouhai, Kuroo getting involved in the dangerous mix and hugging Kenma. 

“Surpri~~ise!” Kuroo sings into the trio, grinning at them.

“Oh, I feel so surprised, I almost reacted” Kenma deadpans, looking up at his best friend, Hinata laughing openly with his senpai, while Kageyama winced a bit on Kuroo’s behalf, but with a smile.

Kuroo pouted for a second but a mischievous glint came to his eye as he wrapped his arms around Kenma’s waist, easily picking him up and swinging him around, Kenma looking largely unimpressed, but unable to suppress an eyeroll and slight smile at his best friend’s antics.

Kageyama chuckles softly and Hinata pouts, reaching out for Kenma like a little kid that wants something. Kuroo sees this and looks to Tanaka, who nods his head towards Hinata, meaning that he should do as the boy wanted, not really sure about his mental state after the nightmares and self conscious episode.

Kuroo quickly puts Kenma back down in his chair, ruffling his hair.

“Gee, thanks for that Kuroo, just what I needed” Kenma says dryly, going back to eating.

Kuroo goes to reply but Noya appears at his side, looking like he’s gonna explode with excitement  
“That was so COOL!!” he exclaims “Me next! Me next!” he shouts, jumping onto Kuroo, who easily catches him and holds him up like Rafiki from the Lion King, Tanaka draping himself over Kageyama and laughing his ass off.

Kageyama rolls his eyes and complains about his ‘overbearing senpai’ but does nothing to push Tanaka away. 

Tanaka happily ruffles Kageyama’s hair as he goes to follow Noya and Kuroo’s antics in another part of the room. 

“Well, that was a spice of life I could’ve done without” Kenma says dryly, but Kageyama doesn’t miss the slight upturn at the corners of his lips, or the happy look in his eyes.

“But they’re all so cool!” Hinata exclaims, but then frowns with a pout “Even if they did try and take you away” he finishes.

Kenma just rolls his eyes and grabs Hinata’s hand  
“Don’t be ridiculous, Kuroo wouldn’t really take me that far away, he’s just an idiot sometimes” Kenma says, not seeming phased by the hand holding.

Kageyama keeps eating with a smile, watching the pair be adorable together, though it does embarrass him just a little bit.  
He wonders how Kenma is so casually and openly holding Hinata’s hand and not being embarrassed about it.  
Even though almost on the training camp was gay, it didn’t make it any easier from Kageyama to openly show affection to either of his boyfriends.  
And yet, Kenma was so easily holding Hinata’s hand, as if it were nothing.

“It’s because I don’t care who knows” Kenma says, interrupting Kageyama’s thought process.  
Kageyama blinks and frowns, not understanding  
“Why I’m not embarrassed about holding Hinata’s hand. It’s because I want everyone to know that we’re together... I also want to hold yours, but food is kinda a priority.” he says softly, but Kageyama can hear him clearly, and looking over to Hinata, Kageyama knows it’s the same with him, he can see the blush from Kenma’s blunt, loving words.

Kageyama smiles at the two  
“It’s okay, I’ll get enough attention from both of you guys later” he says with a smirk, finishing eating and getting up, quickly kissing both of them on the crown of the head before heading out to the courts for practice, not wanting to let the rest of the day waste away without having done anything.

***

Kenma and Hinata simply sit there and hold hands once Kageyama leaves, though they eventually finish eating and Hinata pulls Kenma away from a game, pulling him outside to go for a walk, their hands swinging between them.

Hinata, as usual, talks Kenma’s ear off, but it’s nothing important and Kenma isn’t entirely sure Hinata knows what he’s talking about either, but he’s smiling blindingly bright, and Kenma wasn’t ever going to complain about seeing that smile before, let alone now, after seeing him after that nightmare.

Kenma squeezes Hinata’s hand loosely and looks at the boy  
“Hey, do you think we should go do some practice?” he asks softly, stroking the back of Hinata’s hand as his eyes light up.

“Will.. Will you toss to me?” he asks in soft reverence, as if this were the single most important question in his life.

With him looking at Kenma with those big, hopeful, excited eyes, Kenma finds that he could never, ever deny his boyfriend such a simple, easily done thing, especially when it makes him this excited.

Kenma quickly looks away with a huff  
“Sure” he murmurs quietly, but he knows Hinata heard him, due to the sudden explosion of energy that Kenma feels at his side.  
He soon finds himself being dragged towards a gym by Hinata, babbling something about how cool Kenma was. 

Kenma’s just excited that he can put that giant, radiant smile on Hinata’s face.

***

While he wanted to work on his spikes, Kageyama got dragged into setting for his senpai and working on their synchronised attack.  
Not that he was really complaining, but really, he just didn’t want to be around other people any more today and felt like working himself down to the bone before the undoubted practice game tomorrow.

Having already missed out on a large portion of practice that morning, Kageyama largely didn’t care about what he worked on as long as it was something difficult. 

Since Tanaka was there, Kuroo had decided to take up residency on the other side of the net, trying to block their spikes. Of course, he was having almost no luck with that, finding it quite frustrating.  
After about 20 minutes Daichi called break, everyone looking excited but also mildly exhausted after non-stop spiking practice.

Kageyama grabbed his water bottle, quickly draining half of it, though almost spitting it all out when Suga came over and patted him on the shoulder.

“Hey, I was just wondering if you wanted me to set for you so you could do some spiking practice? Daichi’s very big on working on that skill of yours” he says softly, smiling like a proud parent. 

Kageyama nods slightly  
“That would be really good actually... it’s kinda what I wanted to come in here to practice originally” he says softly, smiling awkwardly at Suga, who nodded.

“Perfect then, how about we go over there?” he asks, pointing to a spare court, to which Kageyama nodded, quickly picking up some balls and going over to the court. 

Suga watched him go with a grin, hi-fiving Daichi as he walked over to the other court. 

Setting himself up, Kageyama threw up the ball for Suga, who set it up, ‘maybe a bit too high’ Suga wondered as Kageyama finished his run up, watching him jump and hit the ball.  
Though it was too high and he overshot the court, hitting one of the pair walking in through the door, in the head.  
Kageyama landed and quickly ran over to the pair, quickly identified as Hinata and Kenma.

Running over, Kageyama was terrified.  
He felt like he was going to throw up. He just spiked REALLY HARD straight into his BOYFRIEND’S FACE.

Getting over there, he noticed Hinata was silently lying there. 

“Hey, Hinata? You okay? I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you” Kageyama says quickly, putting his hands on Hinata’s forearms.  
He quickly sat up, almost head butting Kageyama looking so excited.

“KAGEYAMA! YOU’RE SOO COOL!!” his boyfriend whined, his eyes sparkling brightly.  
Kageyama just blinks, his boyfriend’s reaction nowhere near what he was expecting.

“Can we play four on four?!” he asks excitedly, looking around the gym and spotting the group of second and third years.

Kageyama blinks and shrugs  
“I mean, if you want... I’m sure people would be up for it... if you want.” Kageyama says softly, looking at Kenma who shrugs.

Hinata grins and jumps upright, bouncing over to his senpai and talking to them excitedly, and Kageyama sees nods and hear laughter from over there, Hinata quickly beckoning them over.

‘This is either gonna go really well or really REALLY badly’ Kageyama thinks to himself, walking over to the court with everyone.

***

Daichi quickly works out teams, Tanaka, Kuroo, Daichi and Suga vs. Kenma, Kageyama, Asahi and Hinata.

They all agree and Hinata bounds off to get the scoreboard, everyone setting themselves up, basically, it was defence-heavy team, vs offence-heavy team, but also the third years setting themselves up against their kouhai in the hope to make them better.

On Kageyama’s team, they work out some quick roles. Kenma would be the setter, Asahi would be the ace, Hinata would be middle blocker and decoy and Kageyama would be the reciever.  
Of course, this was all in the hope that, with just Tanaka and Kuroo’s spikes, they might get away with that set up, though Kageyama was quite prepared to have to rearrange the team, were it necessary.

Upon Hinata’s return, Kageyama was pushed forward to shake Daichi’s hand and flip a coin in order to determine who went first.

Daichi called heads and it landed tails, Kageyama being given the ball. 

Kageyama spun the ball in his hand, then quickly throwing it up and jumping to hit it over the net.  
Daichi dived for it and hit it up, Suga getting it easily and setting it easily up to Kuroo, who spiked straight towards Hinata. 

Hinata hit it up, though it was wobbly at best, Kenma grumbling slightly as he positioned himself under it, setting it straight up to Asahi, though it was too low, and he hit it straight into the net.  
“S-Sorry!” Asahi yelped, bowing profusely.  
Kenma shook his head and bowed once, lowly “It was my fault, it wasn’t high enough” he said quietly, coming back up and turning back towards the net, ignoring Kuroo’s smirk.

“What’s wrong Ken, can’t deal with such a big marshmallow as a teammate?” he teases, to which Kenma just looks at him  
“Then how have I dealt with you?” he replies, a slight smile on his face as he takes a stance.

Tanaka chuckles and picks up the ball, doing a normal, smooth serve.  
Kageyama picks it up and passes it to Kenma, who sets it to Hinata, who tries to hit it over, but Kuroo’s cat face gets in the way, deflecting it back onto their side.

Asahi dives for it and picks it up with a cry for help  
“Tsuman! Cover!” he calls out, quickly getting back up.

Kageyama is right there and quickly sets it up, Kuroo instantly running to block Hinata, who jumps.  
But, apparently, he overlooked something. A little something that was about to become a big problem, in the shaped of his short, pudding hair coloured best friend.

Kuroo’s self satisfied smirk faded as he saw Kenma jump for it, who easily hit it down on the other side of the net, surprising everyone except Kageyama who was grinning and gave him a soft hi-five.

Kuroo just glared at his best friend.  
“What was that?! Why didn’t you tell me you could do that?! When did you learn to do that?!” Kuroo exclaimed, obviously angry. 

Suga and Daichi just grin at each other.

Kenma shrugs  
“Kageyama was talking about how it’s easier to spike a ball if you at least know something about setting, because you can see the set easier and that makes it easier to spike... and he suggested I give it a go..” he says softly with a shrug and slight smirk “Bet you didn’t see the coming” he finishes, going back to his original position, hearing Kuroo mutter something about a ‘cocky setter poisoning the mind of his best friend’.

Of course, Kuroo wasn’t really angry, in fact, it was kind great that Kenma was trying new things... but not in a game where Kuroo was against him and actually had no idea what to do against something like that.

***

The game went on, Daichi picking up more and more balls, and Tanaka helping Kuroo out more on blocks, the game eventually ending with Kageyama and co. winning, but only barely.

Daichi cheers them on and smirks slightly evilly, now having good enough information on his kouhai in order to change their training regimes in order to more benefit them and work them against their opponents.

Dinner was called at some point, Noya waiting for them, none too patiently, to finish their game, before dragging Asahi off to eat, the others following behind them.

Most people had already finished dinner, leaving them too all sit together properly. 

Though, everyone sat in their couples (and trio), mainly talking amongst themselves quietly. Honestly, that practice match had exhausted everyone, driving them to quietly eating, having showers and going to bed.

After all, tomorrow was the last day of training camp, and that meant a big game, followed by some extra-yummy lunch.  
But, if you asked them, that sounded kinda perfect. 

Though, unlike his boyfriends apparently, Kageyama was kinda nervous about how their relationship would fare once they left to their different sides of the country. 

But Kageyama deemed that a problem for the him of tomorrow, for now he’d just enjoy hanging out with his boyfriends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOPE YOU LIKED IT!!  
> Don't forget to comment! They always light up my life!!  
> Constructive criticism is welcome! (Or even just insults tbh)
> 
> I know there's nothing to do with relationships in this one, sorry about that! I felt like the boys just needed a bit of volleyball <3  
> I hope you enjoyed it and I can't wait to hear what you guys say down in the comments!
> 
> Also, this one is a bit (lot) longer than normal so hope you enjoy it!


	19. The end (of training camp) is nigh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 21/12/16  
> (for the 23/12/16)  
> Training camp finishes and Kenma is a lil cutie.  
> (kinda a filler... I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like this, but I had to split it into multiple chapters otherwise it would be too big and the next one would be tiny... sorry!)

But really, the him of tomorrow wasn’t anymore emotionally prepared to deal with the end of training camp than the him of yesterday.

Kageyama and Hinata rolled up their futons for the last time, Kenma having spent the night in his room with Kuroo, feeling like he had a lot to catch up on with his best friend, specifically about Tanaka. 

The pair didn’t really mind, they probably would’ve told their best friends about it, had they not been each other’s best friend. 

Kageyama quickly cleaned up, sitting by and watching his compact ball of energy of a boyfriend bounce around and clean up. 

 

He thought about how they were gonna keep their relationship with Kenma up, after all the time they’d been spending together on camp, what were they gonna do? They couldn’t really afford to go visit him once a month, let alone weekly.  
Kageyama and Hinata didn’t have that problem though, they saw each other almost everyday and on those days they didn’t have school they hung out anyway, even before they were going out. 

But Kenma... they saw him like 3 times a year, if they were lucky, how the hell was this even gonna work out?

Kageyama felt an impending headache and groaned softly, closing his eyes with a huff. They really hadn’t thought this through had they? It’s not like he really wanted to, but would breaking up really be the best course of action.

Kageyama was pulled out of this thoughts by laughter coming from in front of him.

Opening his eyes, he sees Hinata and talking animatedly with Kenma and waving his arms around wildly, probably telling some insanely over dramatised story, and Kageyama couldn’t find it in himself to possibly be that bad a guy and wipe the smile of either of those smiles, he never ever wanted to be the cause of those smiles disappearances. Ever.

He rolled his eyes when Kenma looked at him, causing Hinata to bound over and drag him upright and into the conversation about some grand, 100% over exaggerated adventure Hinata had been on, but Kageyama couldn’t find it in himself to care, keeping a goofy smile on his face as he listened to Hinata.

***

Eventually Daichi interrupted their ‘love fest’ with the call for breakfast, causing all conversation to stop, triggering a stampede toward the dining hall.

While they sat together to eat, no words were said between the trio as they ate, all of them just wanting to stay in each other’s company a little while longer and dreading bringing up their impending separation, instead stuffing themselves with food.

Hinata, as usual, was the first to finish and grabbed Kenma and Kageyama’s free hands, just sitting there and holding their hands quietly. 

“Okay everyone! Final game start in 10 minutes!” calls out Ukai gruffly, sticking his head into the breakfast hall for a second before leaving. 

The three boys unlinked hands and took up their plates, making their way into the designated gym.  
The moment they enter, they change completely, Hinata and Kageyama quickly walking away from Kenma, Hinata with a slight wave, going over to their team to warm up.

‘It’s fine, we can do this. We’ve just gotta keep on top of it this time. Kenma’s good, and so is their whole team, but I’m sure we can do this.’ He thought to himself, doing warm ups with Hinata before huddling around Ukai for his pre-game spiel.

“Okay guys! I’m proud of everything we’ve done so far this camp, and though we had a bit of a slack day yesterday, I still know most of you guys practiced.” he says, looking around 

“Now, we’re going to be trialing some new formations and players on court. This does NOT affect our first sting. Understood? That said, it might affect next year’s, as well as our main substitutes for games. Do your best, it’s not even a practice game really, but if you don’t try your best at everything, there’s no point in trying. Understood?” 

There are grunts of affirmation and Ukai nods, signalling to Daichi to get up and make his captain’s speech.

“Okay! We’ve gotten so far and we’ve got a lot of new moves to try against these guys, give it your all, do your best. I don’t expect us to win, but I expect all of you to give it your best shot. Think we can do that?” he asks, a self assured grin on his face, which slowly spread across his teammates. 

Yells and calls of conformation echoed across the gym, and looking over, Kageyama could’ve sworn that Nekoma looked kinda scared.

Kageyama grinned, ‘Good, they should be’.

***

They played 3 sets, losing 2:1, points of 21:25, 27:24 and 22:25.

They were all close games, and even though they lost, they’d learnt so much about how they mixed as a team, and Ukai got some ideas about how to set them up better in future.

But for now, they were crowded around Daichi, cheering for their spirit, their effort and their lack of defeatist behavior.

Because, to Daichi, those skills, they would perfect later. They would get better with practice.  
But if they gave up, if they were weak-willed, there was only so much Daichi could do to improve that, so if he left his team emotionally strong, it was honestly the best he could do, because he could drill them all he wanted, but without that unwillingness to give up, it would all be worthless. 

Because there was always going to be someone better, but if they didn’t give up, even in the face of someone they were obviously outmatched by, then they’d stand a chance of winning.

 

Grinning and cheering, Hinata hug tackled Kageyama, who stood there and took it, wrapping his arms around his little ball of sunshine.

***

Of course, because Ukai knew how to properly motivate his kids, he opened the doors to the dining hall, showing excessive amounts of questionably-healthy foods, which the boys immediately pounced upon like ravenous wolves.

Kenma soon joined Kageyama and Hinata at one of the tables, pulling his chair close to the pair, quietly and slowly eating.  
Kageyama quickly noticed and calmed down, filling his plate and sitting back, draping his arm around Kenma’s shoulders and pulling him close and eating slowly with him, which he seemed to appreciate, curling into Kageyama’s side.  
Hinata, seeing this, pouted and moved to the other side of Kenma, sitting down next to him and leaning close to him with a grin.

This made Kageyama chuckle  
“What’re you doing, idiot?” he murmurs, a slight smile on his face. This only makes Hinata pout more.  
“I was feeling left out so I thought I’d move closer to Kenma since you’re ignoring me Bakageyama” he replies, sticking his tongue out at his boyfriend.

Kenma just curls close to Kageyama, though holds his hand out for Hinata to hold. 

After a minute or so of quiet eating, Kenma speaks up. 

“U-Um... so.. How is this going to work once we leave here?” he asks quiety, looking up at Kageyama with an ever so slightly panicked looked.

Kageyama slides his hand up and strokes Kenma’s hair.  
“Well, we’ll have to text a lot, and call almost every night. We’ll also have to visit each other at some point but... I don’t know how we’ll do that if we’re all busy all the time with school and volleyball” he says softly, looking back at Kenma “We’ll figure something out I’m sure” 

Que the ever helpful Tanaka-senpai and Kuroo’s appearance, their grins as wide as the cheshire cat.

“My dear kouhai! It seems we have similar problems” Tanaka says, grinning as per normal.  
Kenma raises his hand slightly  
“We’re in the same year” he says quietly, though Kuroo and Kageyama noticed the slight smirk on his face.

Tanaka pouted “I wasn’t talking to you” he mumbles, looking at the table. 

Kuroo chuckles softly and ruffles Tanaka’s would-be hair, though it looked more like he was petting him.

“Go on, you were saying?” Kageyama says softly, finding his senpai’s dejected mode a little annoying. 

“I was saying! We three are in a situation, you see, we all wanna visit people whose prefecture is too far away and mildly annoying.  
So~o, I was gonna suggest we make a weekend of it once a month and go up on the Saturday after practice and come back on the Sunday!  
And you can clear it with your parents by saying you’ll be with your beloved Tanaka-Senpai!” he says happily, grinning happily, as if it had been all his idea, though Kageyama would put money on the fact that Kuroo had helped him out at least a little bit. 

Kageyama shrugs and looks at Hinata and Kenma, his parents wouldn’t care as long as his grades didn’t suffer. 

Hinata looked as if he were deeply contemplating this, but then grinned and nodded. 

Kenma nods slightly and leans closer to Kageyama 

Tanaka’s grin gets even more blinding as it spreads. 

“Perfect! That’s settled then!” he says, turning to Kuroo like an excited little puppy, as Kuroo shoots him a lopsided grin and quickly pecks him on the lips, causing the other three to fake gag. 

“Ew, take your disgusting PDA somewhere else, it’s like watching your older sibling kiss someone” Kenma says, screwing up his face, his boyfriends nodding in agreement. 

Kuroo chuckles and grabs Tanaka’s hand  
“Fine then, I’m going to go enjoy what little time I have left with him then. See you guys later” Kuroo says, getting up, Tanaka keeping pace with him.

“Can we just stay here like this until you have to go?” Kenma asks quietly, looking up at them. They both nod and snuggle close to Kenma, not wanting to waste another moment.

***

Eventually Ukai called together Karasuno to leave, Kageyama and Hinata not letting go of Kenma’s hands until the last second before boarding the bus, checking for the 100th time they had all exchanged numbers. 

Daichi quickly pushed them onto the bus, Kenma going over to wait with Kuroo.

The moment they sat down, Kageyama and Hinata both felt vibrations in their pockets, quickly moving to get out his phone, Kageyama looked down with a dumb grin, seeing a message from Kenma  
“Miss you” was all it said, and looking out the window, Kageyama saw Kenma tuck away his phone with a slight blush. 

Kageyama quickly replied “Miss you too” before waving out the window to Kenma. 

He then spent the rest of the bus ride with Hinata asleep on his shoulder, quietly texting Kenma about nothing in particular. 

***

After getting off the bus, Hinata had to go home, quickly pecking Kageyama on the lips before leaving.

Kageyama quickly made his way home with his bag, arriving home to a silent apartment.

He was still texting Kenma, but soon realised he had homework to do and stopped, under the pretence of needed to concentrate. 

Quickly though, he was too fidgety to be able to concentrate, putting it down to his new boyfriend and got our his phone, finding Oikawa’s number and calling it before he could think better of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HOPE YOU LIKED IT  
> Comment and tell me what you think! 
> 
> Now, I'm actually going away for Christmas and new years so I won't be replying to any comments again until next year!  
> THAT DOESN'T MEAN I DON'T WANT YOU TO COMMENT  
> PLEASE  
> COMMENT  
> TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK  
> I WANT TO KNOOOOOOOOOOOW!!!
> 
> Now, this also means that my 2 updates for this Friday and next Friday will be done today (double update today or tomorrow, but then not again until next year)  
> I'm sorry about that, but it doesn't let me set it up to post for me in the future and I won't have internet, not the time to write anything 
> 
> I'M SORRY  
> IT'S NOT REALLY A HIATUS AND I'LL SEE YOU IN THE NEW YEAR!!  
> HAVE A GOOD CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY AND I'LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!


	20. Phones are a wonderful invention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 21/12/16  
> (for the 30/12/16)  
> Kageyama and Oikawa have a heart to heart  
> And then Kageyama, Kenma and Hinata have some cute bonding time!

He picked up on the second ring

“Hello Tobio-chan! To what do I owe this pleasure?” he asks, using his sickly sweet voice that made Kageyama think that Iwaizumi was in the room.

“I just... wanted to update you on Hinata and I...” he says softly, feeling slightly embarrassed. 

Oikawa chuckles  
“Aww, what, did Chibi-chan find his soulmate or something?” Oikawa says mockingly, thinking it a joke.

Kageyama is quiet for a second and then says quietly  
“..yes” 

Oikawa is silent of the other end of the line. 

“Wait, what?” he asks quietly, sounding extremely surprised “B-But I Thought you were going on training camp! How did that happen?! He would’ve had to of met him before!” Oikawa complains, and Kageyama can definitely hear the whining complaint in his voice, but he also knows that his senpai is feeling just as disappointed and upset as he was when he found out.

“He did. It was Kenma from Nekoma. The setter.” he could practically hear Oikawa wince “Tobio I’m so sorry, are you okay?” he asks softly, and Kageyama can hear the sincerity in his voice.

“Y-yeah.. I wasn’t but.. People with soulmate marks are dumb. To both Kenma and Hinata it didn’t seem to even mildly phase them, like, why would that change Hinata’s feelings if he was already in a relationship?” he snorts  
“I almost snapped them both for that, though I’m pretty sure Tanaka-senpai yelled at them for it while I was busy being distracted by Suga with card games.” he says softly, with a hint of laughter in his voice.  
“Plus, soulmate marks notwithstanding, Kenma had a giant crush on Hinata anyway. But, like you, he said it didn’t matter because Hinata was so in love with me anyway...” he says softly.

He could practically feel Oikawa’s triumphant grin throughout the story.  
“Yeah! Stick it to ‘em Tobio-chan!” Oikawa crows triumphantly. 

Kageyama clears his throat slightly  
“It’s.. that’s not quite the end yet senpai” he says with a slight smirk, practically hearing Oikawa’s hesitation at those works.

“You didn’t Tobio-chan... tell me you and Chibi-chan didn’t break up just so Kenma could get in... I swear to god Tobio-chan!” he vents, and Kageyama could practically feel his glare.

“I didn’t” he confirms “Though I did think about it quite a lot” he finishes, and he hears Oikawa sigh

“I swear to god, Chibi-chan had better raise that self confidence level at some point before you both get hurt because of it.” he says, sounding both relieved and exasperated.

 

“W-well, we came to a bit of an agreement about that... S-Since Hinata and Kenma are soulmates and like each other and I like both of them as well... we kinda got toget-” Kageyama gets cut off with a loud gasp and excited squeal from Oikawa, who figured it out and obviously seriously supported it.

“Tobio! Tell me you’re kidding! You did not get TWO boyfriends in the space of 2 weeks!” he cries out and Kageyama could practically see his senpai flailing around like an overexcited puppy. 

Kageyama winces a bit at his volume but lets him senpai fangirl with a small smile and blush, finding this whole ordeal rather embarassing.

“That’s great isn’t it?” he says, but then frowns “But you guys won’t be able to see each other very often, will you? I mean, you and Chibi-chan go to school together, but Kenma’s in a whole other prefecture.. How’re you going to make that work Tobio-chan?” he asks quietly, really wanting all this to work out for the better.

Kageyama sighs  
“At this point, it’s going to involve a lot of texting and phone calls, plus going up there once a month, considering neither of us can manage to get away any more often than that” he says softly with a shrug “We’ll figure something out Oikawa-senpai, I’m sure” he finishes, scuffing his toes against the floor.

He hears his senpai make a noise of conformation  
“I know you will Tobio-chan. Just doesn’t let these two slip through your fingers, okay?” he says, sound very genuine and caring. 

Kageyama nods with a smile  
“Of course Senpai. I’ll see you at inter-high.” he says, promptly hanging up.

***

After the phone call, Kageyama knows there’s no hope for his concentration to increase and so he goes to text Kenma, but quickly realises he was added to a group with Kenma and Hinata.

He smiles and reads through it:

Kenma: Hello?

Hinata: Haai! 

Hinata: Where’s Bakageyama?

Kenma: No idea, he was he was going to do homework so...

Hinata: BUT HE NEVER DOES HOMEWORK!! 

Hinata: BAKAGEYAMA, WHAT’RE YOU HIDING FROM US?!

Kageyama: Nothing, idiot. I was just talking to Oikawa is all.

Kenma: What? Why? What’s wrong? 

This made Kageyama smile, Kenma was so much more talkative over text.

Hinata: I dunno, sometimes he just talks to him, but it makes him happier so I won’t really complain.

Kageyama: He listens to me and knows me almost as well as Hinata does, but he’s known me longer. 

Kenma: But didn’t he really hurt you in middle school?

Kageyama shrugs at this, trying to explain his relationship with Oikawa was never an easy thing.

Hinata: Yeah! He did! Kageyama, why do you still trust him?! 

Kageyama: He just... he keeps me grounded and lets me just talk to him, without judging me, no matter what it is...

Kenma: ... but don’t we do that too?

Hinata: :(

Kageyama sighs and rubs his hands over his face.

Kageyama: Yes! But I need to talk to someone outside this relationship sometimes, so I don’t feel like I’m going crazy! 

It went quiet in chat and Kageyama sighs, closing it and going back to doing some English something.  
Honestly, he wasn’t really concentrating, too worried about Hinata and Kenma.

Hinata: Can we not fight please? It’s not anything that important, really. It’s just one of Kageyama’s friends. And sure, technically he’s the enemy, but technically you are too Kenma, so can we not argue about it? Please? 

Kageyama quietly reads that and sighs softly with a smile, trust Hinata to be the level headed one while the two level headed ones were fighting.

Kenma: Okay, sorry Kageyama. 

Kageyama: Sorry Kenma.

Hinata: Now that that is out of the way, I have a much more important question! 

Kageyama frowned at his screen and waited

Hinata: Why are we still calling each other by our last names if we’re dating? 

Kageyama froze and he expects Kenma likely did the same, because the next thing he knows, Hinata has started a group call.

Kageyama quickly picks up with a soft “Hello?”

He can feel Hinata’s boundless energy, even through the phone

“You’re not dead! I thought you might be after.. What I said, because neither of you replied! And I messaged again and still nothing..” he whined into the phone, Kageyama blushing even though no one could see him.

“Well Hinata, it was a bit out of nowhere” Kenma counters in his quiet, sassy way.

“It wasn’t really!” Hinata replies with a definite pout “I was just thinking about how boyfriend shouldn’t fight over such silly things! And then I was thinking about things boyfriends should do, instead of things they shouldn’t, and that came to mind. So I thought I’d bring it up to try and make things better!” he says, as if it made perfect sense.  
And, in a Hinata-y way, it did.

But to the introverted Kenma and Kageyama, it literally sounded like the worst idea in the world. 

“B-But Hinata, if we do that at school e-everyone will know..” Kageyama says softly, looking at the ground.

“So?” Hinata replies, and Kageyama can practically hear the shrug in his voice. 

“D-Don’t you care?” he says softly, biting his lip.

“I mean, I love you, why wouldn’t I want everyone to know that?” he asks softly and Kageyama can hear his self consciousness in that.

“I-I.. I just don’t want people making fun of you for it Hinata, that’s all..” He says softly, feeling a little exasperated.

“How about we start by just calling each other out first names in here, on call? And then, if you feel comfortable, doing it in other places?” Kenma offers quietly, feeling kinda left out but knowing it won’t make anything any better if he tries to change the subject.

“I’m okay with it if you are Shouyou” Kageyama says, almost choking on the last word. 

He hears a soft intake of breath  
“Y-Yeah, I am Tobio...” he say very softly so the others can’t hear the catch in his breath.

“Thanks Kozume” Kageyama says, feeling a little giddy, making it easier. 

“You’re welcome Tobio” he replies softly, and Kageyama can hear the smile.

***

They talk about nothing of importance, really just distracting each other from homework they should be doing.

Soon enough Hinata yawns and that triggers all three to realise just how tired they are. 

They say goodnight and Kageyama goes to his room, throwing himself onto his bed with a soft groan and a smile. 

Before going to sleep though, he goes into his messages, changing his boyfriend’s names from ‘Kenma’ and ‘Hinata’ to ‘Kozume’ and ‘Shouyou’, a warm, fuzzy feeling spreading over him and settling him down enough to let him sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY  
> SO  
> 2 UPDATES IN 1 DAY!! WOOOOHOOO!!
> 
> However, with this, a burden does appear... I regret to inform you of an extremely unfortunate event.  
> I'm away, so I won't be updating again until next year, on the 6th of January.. hehe... sorry guys! If there was a way to set this up to post in the future, believe me I would use it! 
> 
> But, as for now, I'll have to leave this here
> 
> Have a merry Christmas (or equivalent holiday) and a happy new year, okay?  
> I can't wait to see what you think down in the comments and I'll be sure to reply to them as soon as I get back next year! 
> 
> Until then <3


	21. Train trips and awkward conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 7/1/17  
> We're going on a train trip.  
> We're gonna meet Kenma's parents.  
> Kageyama's not scared.  
> Okay, well, maybe he is.. but it'll be fine! 
> 
>  
> 
> ... right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omfg!  
> I usually don't put a comment at the start of a chapter but I just wanna say:  
> THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH FOR THE 150 COMMENTS, 219 KUDOS', 25 BOOKMARKS AND 3249 HITS!!  
> I COULDN'T OF WRITTEN OR STUCK WITH THIS FIC WITHOUT ALL YOU AMAZING PEOPLE!! 
> 
> Please tell me how you think it's going, what you think's going to happen next and generally what you think down in the comments! I can't wait to hear from you!!

It was two weekends later than Tanaka convinced his kouhai that they simple had to visit Kuroo and Kenma.  
They both figured out pretty quickly that their senpai was more nervous than he was saying and needed their support in order to put on a brave face and actually go through with the trip.

Neither really had a problem with this and were both just excited about the idea of seeing Kenma again.  
Hinata hadn’t exactly been working with Kageyama, but basically, they’d been making out a lot and were feeling a teeny tiny bit more confident as a couple. 

 

Barely. 

But it was better than before, so they both saw it as a win.

And Tanaka’s nervousness wasn’t all bad.  
Not only did Kageyama and Hinata learn exactly how to calm down their senpai, but he was a distraction from their own underlying nerves, so much so that they barely noticed unless they were alone, and then they drowned them out with making out.

They made out a lot.

Anyway, this is all relevant as Kageyama sits on a train with Hinata asleep on his shoulder and Tanaka spread out over the two seats opposite them, and he thinks about why he’s here and how on earth he isn’t freaking out about every little thing as he rockets off to meet Kenma’s parents.

Hinata snuggles into his side and he instead diverts his attention to his boyfriend right in front of him, threading his hands through his hair and watching him snuggle closer like a cat that craves his attention.  
All too soon Kageyama had to wake up the sleeping pair, collecting the bags of the two half asleep boys and pulling them behind him as they exit the train.  
They quickly find Kenma and Kuroo standing on the platform, just a little way away from them, and though Hinata perks up considerably upon seeing his boyfriend, Tanaka just walks over in his zombie state and rests his head on Kuroo’s chest, mumbling curses about a ridiculously hard working practice, courtesy of Daichi.

Kuroo’s arms easily wound their way around his boyfriend and Kageyama could tell he was pretty much the only reason that Tanaka hadn’t fallen over yet.

Kageyama would’ve agreed with him, however he hadn’t really been worked that hard and didn’t really have much to complain about. But he knew Daichi had worked both Hinata and Tanaka really hard, hence why they’d fallen asleep on the train.

He looked over and saw Hinata and Kenma in much a similar situation, Hinata having his arms draped over Kenma’s shoulders and his head resting against the back of Kenma’s neck.  
Though he wasn’t showing much of a reaction, Kageyama could see the slight smile on his lips as he played on his PSP.

Groaning softly, Kageyama dumped Tanaka’s bag at Kuroo’s feet, repositioning his and Hinata’s bags to make them easier to carry.  
Kenma smiled at him gratefully, though quickly turned his attention back to his game, leaving Kuroo to take charge.

Rolling his eyes at his best friend’s attitude, Kuroo picked up Tanaka’s bag and nudged Tanaka into climbing onto his back for a piggyback, which he was easily talked into in his zombie-like state.

Hinata tried prodding Kenma to do the same but was quickly shut down.  
As Kuroo led them away from the station, Kenma followed him closed, Hinata walking sleepily behind them and Kageyama deciding to walk with him. 

After the third or fourth time Hinata almost fell over, Kageyama gave in and crouched down in front of him  
“God you’re pathetic when you’re tired” Kageyama mutters, waiting for Hinata to climb onto his back while still holding both their bags.

But being in the half asleep state he was, Hinata took no notice of this and quietly climbed onto Kageyama’s back with a quiet, practically non-existent protest  
“I’m not pathetic... Daichi was really mean today” he mumbles, his chin resting on his boyfriend’s shoulder and his eyes quickly closing.

Kageyama easily stood up with his boyfriend and their bags  
“Yeah, I know, I know, it’s fine” he says back, focusing on walking with both of their bags, as well as Hinata on his back.

Though Kenma and Kuroo were talking, or more, Kuroo was talking with the occasional noise of confirmation from Kenma, Kageyama was finding himself a little annoyed at him boyfriend for his lack of help with their exhausted boyfriend and bags.

 

Though, barely a minute after thinking that, Kenma turned around, as if to say something to Kageyama and/or Hinata, but instead frowned and noticed Kageyama’s state and put his PSP away, slowing down to wait for them and holding his hand out for one of the sets of bags. 

Kageyama smiled weakly at him, handing him one of the bags and, when he didn’t hand him the second one as well, Kenma walks around him, pulling it easily out of his hand, thoughmakes a soft noise of surprise when he takes it, looking at it as if it betrayed him. 

Kageyama chuckles softly and grins at him  
“That’s my bag.. It’s got some school books in it, I need to do some studying while I’m here, and, no offence to him, but Tanaka-senpai isn’t exactly the most helpful when it comes to studying” he explains, looking a bit bashful, though Kenma nods his head a little, knowing neither Hinata nor Kageyama were the smartest people the world, but finding it cute that they were coming to him for help with their homework.

He smiles a little and carries the bags, finding a new respect for Kageyama, who’d carried these not-light bags all this way, as well as Hinata, after a brutal practice, by all accounts. 

Kenma smiled to himself, plotting how he’d reward his boyfriend later, but also how to get him to stop thinking he needed to do everything himself.  
But he left that as a thought to mull over later, knowing it wouldn’t be an easy task.

***

Not long after that, Kuroo leads them into a large house, toeing off his shoes at the door and walking inside, instantly walking up stairs to what Kageyama assumes is Kenma’s room.  
Quickly toeing off his shoes, he undoes Hinata’s and puts them next to his in the entrance, stepping into the house with a soft ‘Pardon the intrusion’, Kenma waiting patiently for him and leading him up the stairs to where Kageyama could see Kuroo and Tanaka snuggled up on a futon.

Seeing another futon set up next to that one, Kageyama puts Hinata down, tucking him under the blankets and turning around to find Kenma putting their bags in the corner.  
He smiles at him and gets up, grabbing his bag full of school books and bushing a little  
“Can we,um, do some studying? Please?” he asks Kenma quietly, looking a bit embarrassed but still needing to get it done, and while Hinata was asleep sounded like a great time to do it.

Kenma nodded and grabbed his free hand, leading him downstairs  
“We don’t really want to disturb Kuroo and Tanaka do we? And Hinata looks like he needs a nap, and we’d undoubtedly wake him up” Kenma says quietly, leading Kageyama into a living room with a low table and couch, settling down on one side of it and pulling Kageyama to sit next to him.

Kageyama sits quickly, smiling at his boyfriend and getting out a random book.

“Can we start with... maths?” he asks reluctantly, cringing.

Kenma chuckles softly and nods, leaning closer to his boyfriend to see the textbook

It was gonna be a long study session.

***

A little while later, Kageyama was engrossed in Kenma’s words, happily listening to him and (miraculously) understanding what he was saying, catching up on about 4 weeks worth of maths in half an hour. 

After finishing the set questions, along with some set by Kenma, he lies back with a grins and huff of completion, closing his maths books with a satisfying thud.

He looks over at Kenma and holds out his arm for his boyfriend to snuggle into his side and, while he moves to do so, an adult voice calls to him.

“Kenma! We’re home! Could you come and help us with dinner for a bit please?” a male voice shouts, not unkindly, but definitely expecting him to do as asked.

He shrugs slightly apologetically at Kageyama with a blush, pecking him on the lips and walking out of the room with a smile, causing Kageyama to smile a bit.

After Kenma leaves, Kageyama relaxes back onto the carpet, but frowns when he feels something bugging him.

‘Why’d his dad call him Kenma if that’s his surname?’

That thought came crashing down around him, bringing out the frown that knows his face fa~ar too well

He thinks about it but can’t see any reason for it. Maybe he just missed something at some point? 

He shakes his head in an attempt to dislodge that train of thought, knowing how bad overthinking things was for his mental state, instead focusing on how good it felt to finish all his maths homework.

***

He managed to drown out those thoughts until Kenma came back, taking the spot, snuggling into Kageyama’s side like he meant to earlier

Looking down at him, Kageyama stroked Kenma’s hair back off his face, causing Kenma to look up at him, looking like a contented kitten.

“Why Kenma, why do your parents talk to you using your last name?” he asks softly, with a frown that Kenma thought was absolutely adorable.

He tilts his head a little in response  
“What do you mean? They don’t..” he asks in confusion.

That just causes Kageyama more confusion  
“Then why do you want Hinata and I to call you Kozume, if Kenma is your first name?” he asks, frowning deeply at Kenma.

Kenma blushes a bit in response to this, looking away from Kageyama  
“W-Well, everyone calls me Kenma, it’s not really a special thing to me.. Whereas, no one at all calls me Kozume, and that makes it special to me,,” he tells him softly, blushing quite a bit and causing Kageyama to involuntarily make a soft ‘Aww!’ noise, finding his boyfriend insanely cute in that moment.

“But you can’t call me that around anyone else, they’d catch on so quickly it would be ridiculous” he says, smiling up at Kageyama, causing a grin to spread across his face.

“Mmmhmm, your secret’s safe with me” he says softly, turning his head a little and kissing him softly.

Kenma moves closer to him, cupping his face with one of his hands and kissing him happily.  
It was a sweet kiss, neither really wanting to get too involved but they hadn’t really done anything without Hinata there, and these kisses were plenty for the both of them, without being too far for either.

They stay like that for what could be hours, or, more likely, minutes, until someone clears their throat, causing the pair to jump apart. 

It’s Hinata, and he looks so lost, watching his boyfriends make out without him.  
He’s standing there, fidgeting like he does when he gets taken off the court at an crucial part of a match, looking so awkwardly and vulnerable, chewing his lip and looking at the ground.

Kenma relaxes back down into Kageyama’s side, holding himself up with one arm and watching Hinata.

Kageyama holds out his other arm for Hinata with a smile  
“You going to join us or just stand there?” he asks, and not a second later, he feels Hinata thud into his side, making him laugh a little and kiss him the moment he looks up.

Kageyama is then faced with a problem.  
He wouldn’t really say it was a bad problem, but still existant.

As it happened, there were an odd number of mouths, and neither he, nor Kenma wanted to do anything more than kiss.  
Add in the problem of Hinata easily feeling left out and Kenma badly wanting attention and Kageyama had a BIG problem.

Hinata hovered over Kageyama, cupping his face while Kageyama held him in place with an arm around his waist, rubbing small circles on his hip.

While pondering what he could do, he went back to stroking and playing with Kenma’s hair, like he’d been earlier. Kenma immediately moved into his hand, like a cute little kitten, craving attention.  
Smiling into the kiss, Kageyama plays with Kenma’s hair and keeps kissing Hinata.

Eventually they switch, Kenma kissing Hinata over Kageyama, Kageyama wrapping both his arms around his boyfriend’s waists to steady them both, Kenma cupping Hinata’s face sweetly and Hinata, who’d been paying attention, stroking Kenma’s hair.  
Kageyama honestly couldn’t think of a better way to spend his life than like this with these two boys.

Of course, they were brought out of their reprieve by a loud voice, calling them for dinner. 

They quickly separated and got up, Hinata almost instantly starting to babble about inconsequential stuff, like how Tanaka and Kuroo had gone home, and what they were eating for dinner. 

Kageyama was much more partial to thinking about how amazing his boyfriends were and how didn’t ever want them to leave him, not that he was even really worried about them leaving anymore. 

He was brought out of his thoughts when Kenma pulled on his arm, pulling him down into the seat next to him at the table, Hinata sitting next to him on his other side.  
As a three, they sat opposite Kenma’s parents, both of who looked happy, but just as nervous as Kageyama and Hinata.

This was going to be a long, awkward dinner.

***

Hinata was their saviour, being his normal, overly eccentric self and putting everyone at ease.  
Kenma’s parents were awkward just like him, if a little louder, though that really wasn’t very difficult.

Hinata asked them about their jobs and hobbies and pretty much took charge of the ‘getting to know each other’ conversation easily, leading it to make all of them less awkward.

Kenma’s parents awkwardly asked about their relationship and, as usual, Kageyama a mumbling, fumbling mess while Hinata aptly told them what’d happened.

Basically, Hinata was the favourite, and though Kageyama barely spoke, both adults could see the affection in the eyes of both their son, and his soulmate, and couldn't bring themselves to question him, seeing how nervous he looking.

It finished, like a lot of things, with Hinata.

He yawned and Kenma’s parents took that as a hint to say goodnight and make their way off to bed, leaving the trio alone.

Kenma easily helped Kageyama pack up his books and carry his bag back upstairs, neither really talking as they did so, waiting until they were with Hinata in Kenma’s room to talk.

“That.. didn’t go horribly” Kageyama said with a shrug, looking around for confirmation that he wasn’t hallucinating.  
Kenma nodded and tilted his head at Hinata, knowing he’d have an opinion, like he always did.

“They were so nice! I mean, they didn’t talk very much and they’re obviously very shy like you, but I’m pretty sure they accepted us, even if they were super awkward about it” he says enthusiastically, smiling happily at his boyfriends.

Kenma nods with a slight smile, which his boyfriend know to be his version of beamingly happy.

He takes both their hands, pulling them over to the futon 

“I think, after that awkward but successful dinner, we should sleep. We can do some stuff with Kuroo and Tanaka tomorrow” Kenma says, pushing the 2 futons together and pulling back the covers, sliding into one of them, Kageyama lying in the middle and Hinata lying on his other side, both snuggling close to him. 

‘This is nice’ Kageyama thinks to himself with a smile, nuzzling the top of Kenma’s hair and holding Hinata close ‘I could enjoy getting used to this’

***

They spend the next day with Kuroo and Tanaka, going sightseeing around the area and having a picnic in the park for lunch, courtesy of Kuroo’s amazingly unknown cooking skills.

It was a nice, quiet, affectionate day. 

And it hurt when they got to the train station, no one really wanting the day to end.  
But neither Kageyama nor Kenma were ones for teary goodbyes, just waving to each other before boarding the train.

Hinata however, was far more emotional, looking like he was about to cry.

“Hey, it’ll be fine. We’re seeing each other in a few weeks remember? We’re coming down for some practice games with the teams in your prefecture and staying with your team, remember? We’ll see each other again before you know it” he consoles, which works astoundingly well, pulling Hinata out of his near-tears state and into a downright gleeful state.

“Oh yeah! We’ll see you then! Don’t miss us too much!” he quips, following Kageyama onto the train, causing Kenma to roll his eyes in exasperation, but Kageyama didn’t miss the smile on his face.

Tanaka sulkingly followed the couple onto the train at the last possible second, throwing himself into the seats opposite the pair with a pout.

“Don’t worry Tanaka-senpai! We’ll see them again in no time!” Hinata says brightly, grinning at him.

Kageyama smiled a little. He couldn’t wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoyed your extra long chapter! It's to make up for being a day late.
> 
> AS YOU CAN SEE, I'VE WORKED OUT HOW MANY MORE CHAPTERS THERE WILL BE OF THIS FIC!!  
> :'( THE END IS IN SIGHT PEOPLE!! 
> 
> There's gonna be 2 more proper chapters, plus an epilouge
> 
> On a more positive note, the next 2 chapters are going to freaking ginormous! I've got so much I wanna write and include! 
> 
> ... and I'm sorry, but it's gonna be a freaking insane emotional roller coaster!!
> 
> I'm sorry for the minimal dialogue in this chapter, but it was just one I wanted to write and get out of the way, don't worry, the next 2 chapters will be far FAR more dialogue and action orientated! (though I'm not sure if you're gonna like it that much or not ':) hehe.... )
> 
> I can't wait to hear what you think down in the comments section! Tell me what you would've changed about this chapter, or tell me any ideas or theories you have about what's gonna happen next!  
> See you down in the comments section!


	22. Home games and sad days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 13/01/17
> 
> PAIN, ANGUISH AND SADNESS AWAIT YOU AHEAD
> 
> But it'll be fine...
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ... maybe

Nekoma came down about 3 weeks later and turned up at the end of their Wednesday holiday practice.

Hinata, as usual, was the first one to noticed the bleach blond’s presence and bounded over to him in the middle of a game.  
Kageyama went to yell at his idiot boyfriend, but quickly noticed his other boyfriend, as well as the rest of the Nekoma team.

Ukai blew his whistle, calling an early end to the practice and calling the team around him.  
Kiyoko appeared from somewhere with a clipboard, immediately earning everyone’s respectful, silent attention.

Quickly, she read out who people would be staying with, most of them of no note, except for the fact that Kuroo got put with Tanaka and Kenma got put with Kageyama.

This was fine with everyone, great, even.

Packing up, Kageyama smiles happily as he thinks of spending, essentially a week straight with Kenma and Hinata.

After Kageyama and Hinata finish changing, they meet Kenma outside.  
Dropping his bag, Hinata goes bounding over to his boyfriend and wraps him up into a tight hug, peppering his face with kisses.

Kageyama sighs and picks up Hinata’s now-forgotten bag, walking over to the pair, but he can’t help the small chuckle that comes out when he sees Kenma’s embarrassed but smiling face.

Sighing softly in the knowledge that he gets to spend the whole week with his boyfriends, he smiling goofily at them.

That is, until his phone rings.

This couldn’t be good, the only people who called him were right in front of him which meant that...

“Hello?” he says, turning away from his boyfriends.

“Ah, Tobio? Yes, it’s your mother. I’m in town for work this week and I’ll be staying in the apartment.” his mother replies, sounding crisp and buisness-like.

“I understand” he replies quietly, his mouth going dry. 

“Good. I’ll see you when you get home. I expect you to make meals” she finishes, and Kageyama can practically see the blank, professional look on her face.

“I’ll see you soon” he concludes, closing his phone and turning back to his boyfriends, who, like he expected, are looking at him in confusion.

He couldn’t tell them. If she was a normal, caring parent, everything would be fine.  
Alas, she is not.  
And Kageyama wasn’t letting her within 10 feet of his precious boyfriends.

“I need to get home... alone... Kenma, do you think you can stay at Hinata’s? Please?” he asks, his true desperation leaking into his voice, and, by the look on Kenma’s face, he believed it.  
Which is good because Kageyama really was desperate to get him to stay with Hinata.

Before he could change his mind, Kageyama walks over, giving Hinata back his bag and kissing both of them on the cheek, before quickly turning away and walking off towards his apartment.

***

Watching him go, Kenma turns to Hinata

“What was that all about?” he asks, tilting his head a bit, as if Hinata should know more about their boyfriend’s situation.

Hinata shrugs, looking after Kageyama helplessly 

“I have no idea...” he mumbles back, reaching down and taking Kenma’s hand.

Kenma squeezes his hand softly and yawns quietly, pulling Hinata out of his daze.

“Shouyou, do you think we could get going now? Please?” he asks, blinking with heavy eyes.

“Sure!” Hinata says, his cheerfulness back in full force, but he wasn’t kidding anyone, they both knew he was too worried about Kageyama right now to be okay.

But, for both of their sakes, they ignored it and started off the trek to Hinata’s house.

***

Kageyama makes his way home without incident, finding his mother sitting in the living room with the news on.

Greeting her, he quickly moves to make dinner for them before he can get in trouble for it.

After serving up some simple rice and vegetable dish Kageyama takes up the plates, does the washing up and goes to bed, in an attempt to avoid any potential for his mother’s rage. 

Lying down, he thinks about how nice it would’ve been to spend time alone with Kenma and Hinata in his empty apartment. 

He thinks about how much fun they could be having without him there right now and groans softly into his pillow in annoyance.

Maybe things would look up tomorrow

***

Tomorrow wasn’t shaping up to be much better, in all honesty, it was looking worse.

At breakfast his mother had told him she was going to be leaving at the end of the week.  
The day after Kenma left. 

Wanting to stab his mother’s eye out for springing this so suddenly on him at such a bad time, he leaves early to work off some extra, pent up aggression

***

He’s the first to arrive at the gym and finds something distinctly calming about setting up the nets by himself, stretching by himself and serving by himself.

He knew volleyball was a team game, but it was nice just to work by himself every once in a while. 

However, soon enough Daichi and Suga come in

“What the hell?! I’m sure I locked up last night..” Daichi all but yells in confusion when he finds the gym door open, but, when he looks across and sees Kageyama he shakes his head and goes off to the club room to get changed.

Suga, though, walks into the gym and sits on a bench near where Kageyama is serving.

At the next empty of the ball cart, Kageyama turns to him

“Yes, Suga-senpai?” he asks quietly, not really up for the undoubtedly deep conversation Suga was about to trigger.

“I was just wondering why you’re here alone. I thought Hinata and Kenma were meant to be staying with you.” he says, tilting his head, as if he were an innocent little puppy.

He shrugs with one shoulder  
“Something came up. They had to go stay at Hinata’s” he says curtly, turning away from him to go pick the balls up from the other side of the court. 

Suga raises his eyebrows with a smug little smile  
“They had to go back to Hinata’s? With Kenma lugging around a weeks worth of stuff? Was that really the best idea Kageyama?” he asks in his holier-than-thou voice.

Kageyama grips the ball he’s holding tightly. 

“No” he spits out “But it’s not like I was given much of a choice” he says softly, finishing picking up the balls.

Before Suga can question him further on this, Hinata and Noya come bounding into the gym, Hinata attaching himself permanently to Kageyama’s side.

Usually Kageyama would find that annoying, but right now, he found it kinda comforting. 

However, when Ukai blew his whistle to start warm up, they separated. 

It would be fine.  
It was just another practice

***

And it was! 

For once, Kageyama found it easy to let go and just play volleyball with his team. It was kind of a relief actually. 

That he could still do this, even with the stress of not being able to spend any time with his boyfriends and having to make up excuses for not being able to hang out with them, despite having not seen Kenma in weeks.

This, of course, was rectified after practice.

Hinata had, once again, taken his new favourite spot at Kageyama’s side.

“Hey, Kageyama, can you come over for dinner?” he asks him, causing Kageyama to freeze up “I mean, you don’t have to.. It’s just, Kenma really wants to spend some time with you... and I really wanna spend some time with you... and my parents kinda.. Wanna meet you..” he says, getting quieter and blushing darker the longer he talked.

Kageyama looked down at his boyfriend in abject horror.

“You told your parents?!” he hisses out, hoping he’d misheard something.

Hinata shrugged in response

“They guessed about Kenma and so we told them about you.. And they really like Kenma and they really wanna meet you is all...” he says, rambling due to his nervousness. 

Kageyama was just kinda standing there in shock, causing Hinata to pout at him

“Tobio, please?” he says quietly, and that really gets Kageyama’s attention, turning him a bright shade of pink.

‘God damn it’ he thinks to himself, clenching his jaw 

“Fine. But just for dinner” he says, not needing to look down to know the sun-bright smile Hinata had on.

***

God, after arriving at Hinata’s for the first time, he was extremely sorry that he’d made Kenma walk this.  
In the dark.  
With a big bag.

...  
Okay, so he was feeling a little guilty. Sue him.

Walking into Hinata’s house felt like walking into a different universe.

It was full of reds and browns and it felt so.. homey.

Walking inside, he noticed a small pair of shoes, as if for a little girl.

Smirking, he nudges Hinata  
“I didn’t know you liked crossdressing” he whispers, pointing to the shoes when he sees Hinata’s confused face.

This confusion quickly shifts to embarrassment, followed by his usual anger, causing him to hit hiis boyfriend’s arm

“Not funny...” Hinata mutters in mild annoyance, stalking off into the house and leaving Kageyama to trail after him.

Looking around, Kageyama sees that the place is clean, but in a lived in way. 

Though all the board games were on one shelf, it was a higgledy-piggledy mess of boards, pieces and paper.

Small things like that were what made Kageyama feel relaxed.

Without realising it, he followed Hinata upstairs and into his room, with 2 futons messily lied out on the floor together, one side of the room a messy mix of clothes and homework, and the other perfectly clean and tucked away with Kenma’s bag next to his bed. 

Ignoring the small feeling of missing out, he notices Kenma lying on his futon, asleep.

Smiling, Kageyama lies between the futons, Hinata lying on one side and Kenma asleep on the other side.

He didn’t really have any motivations for this, he just wanted to be near his boyfriends.

Though near might be too weak a word for it.  
Drowning in, might work better.

Hinata was lying half on him, half on the futon, nuzzling his neck with his arm draped over his chest.

Kenma, unconsciously apparently, had snuggled close into Kageyama’s other side, nuzzling his shoulder and making himself as small as possible.

Not that Kageyama was really complaining, he knew he was going to hate getting up from this for dinner.

DINNER! He remembered in a panic, remembering that he’d meet Hinata’s parents. 

‘What if they don’t like me? Will they make us break up? We’re not soulmates after all, why would they want their son together with someone who isn’t their soulmate, less being a third wheel on a relationship between 2 soulmates.. How could they ever like him?’ he thought, holding Hinata tighter subconsciously, not ever wanting to let him go.

Of course, in his panic, he didn’t notice the watchful set of eyes at the door.  
If he had’ve, he might’ve noticed the fond smile it held for him.

***

All too soon, they’re called down to dinner.

Though, in Kageyama’s opinion, it was never going to be late enough.

Kenma woke up with a start when Hinata jumped up to go downstairs and help with dinner, but quickly snuggled back into Kageyama’s side, eventually getting up and muttering about how unfair it was that he didn’t get to consciously snuggle with him boyfriend.

Laughing a little, Kageyama gets up with him, kissing his cheek with a smile.

Grabbing his hand, Kenma leads Kageyama back downstairs and into the kitchen for dinner.

***

Sitting down, Kageyama notices a few things.

Firstly, that there was a little girl that no one had warned him about sitting at the table

‘Well, that explains the shoes at least’ Kageyama thinks to himself, trying to calm himself down.

Next, he notices that Kenma and Hinata were sitting on either side of him, and, as a side note, Kenma wasn’t letting go of his hand.

And finally, he noticed that he was sitting opposite Hinata’s parents, who were still in the kitchen.

He was about to try and talk to the little girl, but before he can, Hinata comes out with food.

Piling up everyone’s plates, his parents come out with rice and miso.

Soon enough, everyone sits down.

“Okay! Hi Kageyama-kun, I’m Hinata Izuki, and this is my wife, Hinata Moeka. But please, call me Izuki. It won’t do you any good if you say ‘Hinata’ in this household” he says, a big grin plastered on his face.

“Oh! And please call me Moeka, Kageyama-kun!” says Moeka, grinning happily at him as she starts eating.

“Please to meet you” Kageyama says softly, seeing exactly where Hinata gets his attitude from.

“And I’m Natsu!” chrips the little girl happily, grinning at him.

Kageyama nods at her slightly

There’s awkward silence for afew seconds, before Hinata breaks it  
“Let’s dig in!” he says, prompting everyone to say a quickly itadakimasu before starting to eat.

“So, Kageyama, we do have a few questions, if you wouldn’t mind” says Moeka after some unsubstantial small talk happens.

Kageyama takes a fortifying breath, and nods his head slightly  
“Please, go ahead Moeka-san” he says, looking at her.

She smiles pleasantly at him, as if he’d just passed a test.

“Well, Hinata has his soulmate, so tell me, why do either of them need you?” she asks bluntly, taking a mouthful of rice.

Kageyama probably could’ve fainted then and there.  
She literally just voiced all of his concerns about their relationship in one go.

Kenma looked at him and noticed this internal panic, as did Izuki.

“Moeka! That’s a little harsh isn’t it?” looking over at Kageyama, Izuki tries to calm down the teen “She didn’t mean it like that, she just meant what are you looking to get out of this relationship if these two already have each other” he tries, with a smile to show he’s really trying not to be antagonistic.

Kageyama feels Kenma squeeze his hand softly and Hinata takes the opportunity to tell his parents off about being insensative, knowing it was a big issue for Kageyama.

However, Kageyama quickly shushes his boyfriend

“U-Um, it’s really what most people want out of their relationships, isn’t it? Happiness... for me, and Hin-Shouyou, and Kenma..” he replies softly, feeling the blush on his cheeks.

Hinata blushes a bit and relaxes in his chair, and Kageyama sees his parents exchange a fond look and a nod 

“Okay, okay, he passes. He was nowhere near as much fun to interrogate as Kenma was.” Moeka mutters, poking her food with her chopsticks.

Rolling his eyes, Izuki looks at Kageyama with a smile and Kageyama smiles back

***

The dinner goes by in a similar fashion, the banter almost too much to stand, but every time it almost went too far, someone, usually Izuki, would reel it back in.

After dinner, Kageyama offers to help with the dishes, but Moeka pushes him away with a smile, telling him that he should probably head home, unless he wanted to stay the night, which he would be more than welcome to.

A sinking feeling emerges in his stomach as he thinks about that.  
Home.  
Back to his mother.  
Back to his cold, impersonal apartment.

He shivers slightly and looks around, realising this place was much more a home to him, despite him having only been here a few hours, while having lived in that apartment for almost a year.

However, he knows he has to go home and face the music at some point and really, waiting wasn’t going to make his situation any better.

He ran upstairs, kissing Hinata and Kenma goodnight before quickly leaving out the front door and going home.

***

He arrives home about half an hour later, but, as he unlocks the door, he knows the damage is already done.

Opening the door, he toes off his shoes and makes a break toward his room, hoping to get to his room before -

“Tobio. Welcome home.” his mother says stiffly from the living room.

He winces a bit and turns to face her, noticing 2 things.  
One, the TV was off, which was never a good thing.  
And two, there was at least 3 wine bottles on the table, all empty.

He couldn’t help but whimper as he walked into the living room, kneeling beside the couch where his mother was sitting.

“Hello mother” he replies quietly, hanging his head slightly.

“Don’t you ‘Hello mother’ me, where have you been?!” she snaps at him, turning to glare at him

“I-I lost track of time in the gym” he lies easily, clenching his fists.

“Oh really?” she asks, obviously not believing him “You didn’t, I don’t know, go on a date. With your ‘girlfriend’.” she says, her voice colder than ice.

Tensing up, he shakes his head  
“Of course not mother.” he says, hoping he made his presence small enough for her to not attack him.

It didn’t work. 

Putting her hand under his chin, she tilts his head back to look at her.

Of course, when she pulls her hand away, Kageyama dare not move, his slightly panicked eyes staring back into her cold ones.

He waits for it, knowing the cold sting of her hand better than anyone should ever have to.

She slaps him. 

And again.

And again and again and again.

But he doesn’t look away.  
He knows that the moment he does, she’ll just get angrier, and he dare not risk that with practice the next day.

Eventually, she stops, dismissing him with a soft grunt and tilt of her head

“Oh, and don’t even think of going near the kitchen.” she says, turning back to the TV and grabbing the remote, turning it on.

Kageyama mumbles an “of course” and quickly scurries out of the living room, straight to the bathroom to see the damage.

Looking in the mirror, it could’ve been worse.

A split lip and purple cheek.

Sure, it doesn’t sound that bad.

But he had practice again tomorrow, and there was no way he was going to get out of there without at least a few questions.

....  
And it was the day they were practicing with Nekoma. 

‘Well, shit’ Kageyama thinks to himself, getting out a damp towel for his lip ‘What the hell kind of story is going to be able to cover this..’

***

“You’re telling me you fell over? On road? In the middle of the night?” Tanaka questions, looking skeptical at best.

Kageyama shrugs, hoping his lie can hold up 

“What do you want from me, it was dark...” he replies weakly.

Looking completely unconvinced, Tanaka sighs 

“I want the truth here Kageyama. You can lie as much as you want, but it’s not going to make anything any better! I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s wrong!” he rants, more annoyed at the fact that someone hurt Kageyama, but finding the fact that he was protecting them absolutely ridiculous.

“Come on Kageyama, please. I won’t tell anyone, I just need to make sure you’re okay” Tanaka says helpessly.

Kageyama entertains the idea.

For about 10 seconds.

He wants to tell Tanaka, he really does, he’d been such a great senpai up until now.

But... he couldn’t.

It’d heal, he’d be fine.

So, instead of responding, he pushes past his senpai, walking back out into the gym.

Tanaka leaned against the door frame, watching him go and biting his lip.

He just wanted to help him, and Kageyama knew that.

So who the hell was he trying to protect.

Tanaka shook his head, he had no idea.

***

Tanaka wasn’t the only one concerned about the ebony haired teen, his boyfriends both really concerned, but not knowing what to do to get him to open up to them about it.

He didn’t even go to find them when he walked in, late, they might add.

And on break he just sat by himself on the bench.

It was ridiculous.

No one could get him to say anything other than his flimsy-at-best story about falling over in the dark on the way back from Hinata’s.

So, during lunch break, Kenma and Hinata made a plan, with Tanaka’s guidance of course.

***

That was one hellish day done.

Only how many more before his bloody lip healed? How much longer did he have to go, spouting that bullshit story?

God, he hated lying but, honestly, it’s not like he could tell anyone.

‘Why not?’ asked a small voice ‘What can she do?’ 

Kageyama quickly squashed those thoughts with denial and pain, ignoring their existence.

Maybe he’d be able to avoid Kenma until he left, but there was no way to avoid Hinata forever.

Deeming that a problem for a later date, Kageyama rushes home.

***

Apparently though, he wasn’t fast enough.  
As he unlocks his door, he hears a distinctly Hinata voice  
“Pretty sure it’s just over here..”

However, he notices this too late, Hinata having already spotted him.

Before they get over to him, Kageyama quickly enters the apartment, closing and locking the door behind him.

“Kageyama!” he hears Hinata yell, along with a banging on the door.

“Kageyama, open up please!” Kenma says, and it almost breaks Kageyama’s heart enough for him to do it.  
Almost.

“Tobio, what is that god awful racket?” his mother asks, walking out of the lounge room toward him.

Thinking fast, Kageyama tries to cover  
“It’s nothing mother, it’s fine” he says pathetically, though the banging and calling of his name is obviously not nothing.

“Kageyama! Come on! You were kinda out at practice and we just wanted to check up on you!” he hears a distinctly Hinata voice call out.

Easily pushing her son of the way, Kageyama Miki unlocks and opens the door with a bright smile, reserved only for those who don’t know her.

“Practice? You must be on Tobio’s volleyball team!” she says happily, as if she cared about such things.

Hinata blinks in surprise, while Kenma bows, pulling Hinata down with him

“Hello Ms. Kageyama. We were wondering if Tobio was around. He seemed a bit down at practice” Kenma says, seemingly his usual, quiet self.

Her eyes going cold, she turns to Kageyama  
“Is that true? Were you slacking off at practice?” she says, in a voice that makes Hinata and Kenma both shiver.

Kageyama shakes his head, unable to help the pathetic whimper that escapes him.

“N-no, he was perfect at volleyball, we’re just worried about him is all!” Hinata calls out, trying to diffuse the situation  
“We haven’t seen him since he came over to hang out yesterday, and he wasn’t feeling too great, so we were worried about him!” Hinata finishes, biting his lip and hoping he diffused whatever situation was going on.

She instantly brightened at this, turning back to the boys.

“Ah! So he was with you two!” she says, turning to invite them inside 

“Please, come in! Tobio was just about to make dinner” she says, turning to look at Tobio meaningfully.

Kageyama quickly nods and gets up, going into the kitchen.

Beckoning the two boys inside, Miki does a basic self introduction, taking the two boys into the living room and turning on the TV to some volleyball sports station and going into the kitchen and looming over Kageyama as he goes through the cupboards to make dinner.

Glaring at him, Miki leans forward  
“I hope you’re not planning on eating any of this” she says, picking up a carrot and looking at it uninterestedly.

Shaking his head, Kageyama gets out biscuits for his ‘friends’ to enjoy.  
“Of course not mother” he says quietly, putting them onto a plate and leaving it for her to take out to them.

She watched him for a few more seconds, then nods and goes back into the living room, Kageyama almost collapsing after she leaves.

But he could do this.  
It would be fine.

***

Miki walks back into the room, Hinata sitting against the couch and Kenma sitting between his legs, Hinata sloppily trying to braid his hair.

Giggling, Miki takes a seat behind them on the couch, putting the cookies next to the pair.

“Say, are you two soulmates?” she asks, munching on her biscuit.

Kenma stiffens a little and Hinata nods slightly.

“We are, how’d you guess?” he asks, full of fake cheer.

Miki doesn’t notice, too busy patting herself on the back for guessing correctly.

“A mother just knows! I’m so glad Kageyama’s made nice friends, though I might have to talk to him about giving you two enough time alone! You don’t want some loner like him hanging around all the time now do you?” she said, almost misleading Hinata with her bright happy tone.

But after hearing what she’d said to Kageyama in the kitchen, Hinata had no doubt that her ‘talk’ would be anything but pleasant, and Hinata wouldn’t wish that on his worst enemy, let alone his boyfriend.

“No, please don’t! We like having him around, it would be boring without him!” Hinata says confidently, smiling slightly, but the tremor in his hands as he does Kenma’s hair giving away how nervous she was making him.

She rolls her eyes  
“Suit yourselves, but really, are you sure you need someone as useless as him around? He’s only going to get in the wa-” she says, much like the bitchy girl from school.

Kageyama, however, unknowingly interrupts his mother

“Dinner’s ready” he calls out, carefully laying the table with food and sitting down at the empty spot, and though his boyfriends notice, he knows there’s nothing they can do.

Miki sits next to her son, making Hinata and Kenma sit opposite them, holding hands under the table, though Kageyama figures his mother wouldn’t really care anyway, as long as they were soul mates.

Pushing down his jealous feeling, he sips at his water, the only thing he’d had so far today.

He was actually kinda luck he hadn’t fainted at practice, but really, at this point, he didn’t have any luck left at all.

***

In what seems like the following few hours, Kenma and Hinata talk with his mother about her work.

Or more, they ask her one question and she talks for about 3 hours about her work.

Kageyama found an escape in clearing the table, leaving his boyfriends there to deal with her.

Kicking himself, he finds himself still sitting at the table hours later, listening to his mother drone on.

Trying not to get too jealous, he watches Kenma slowly doze off on Hinata’s shoulder as time drags on.

Quickly looking at his phone, he clears his throat in an attempt to get his mother’s attention.

With a glare she nods her head to let him talk.

“It’s 9 o’clock mother, we should probably let Hinata and Kenma go home” he says softly, holding out his phone for her to see.

She squints at the screen for a second and then laughs awkwardly

“Oh! It’s much too late to send them home! You two don’t mind sharing Tobio’s bed do you? We only have a single guest futon, Tobio can sleep on that” she says quickly, with a blindingly bright smile.

Hinata smiles at her  
“Oh no, we don’t want to be any trouble, it’s fine!” Hinata tries, not wanting to stay any longer than he had to in this cold place.

“It wouldn’t be any trouble my dear! It would be our pleasure in fact, wouldn’t it Tobio?” she says, elbowing her son harder than necessary.

Kageyama nods quickly

“Stay. Please?” he asks quietly, and with that Hinata was convinced.

“Okay, okay. Kageyama, could you show us to your room? Kenma’s really tired” he says with a smile, prompting Kenma awake so he could walk to Kageyama’s room.

“Oh no! Don’t be silly, I’ll take you while Tobio finishes cleaning up” Miki says, elegantly walking out of the room, expecting them to follow her.

Hinata looks at Kageyam with a slight wince, squeezing his shoulder softly as he passes, practically carrying Kenma.

***

Kageyama quickly cleared off the table and filled the sink, washing and drying the dishes before he was told to.

Eventually, his mother came out, a contented smile on her face, as if it was her son and his boyfriend that she was happy for.

Coming out, she calls him into the living room, Kageyama quickly hanging up the tea towel and standing next to her.

“Those boys are so nice! And they’re soulmates too!” she says happily, opening a bottle of some alcoholic something. 

Her eyes narrow slightly after a mouthful “But you really shouldn’t tag along as much as you do, I’m sure it’s annoying! I know that I sure as hell wouldn’t want you hanging around me and my soulmate.” she says, and though Kageyama could bring up his dad, he bites his tongue.

After a moment, her eyes harden a bit “As nice as they are, you really don’t have much time for friends, between volleyball and school, you really don’t time for friends, especially ones that take up so much of your time like them.” she says, shaking her head “You need to stop hanging out with them outside of school and practice” she concludes, as if that were the final word on the matter.

Kageyama blinks, not expecting her to be so blunt or harsh.

“B-But they’re my bo-best friends! I can’t just drop them like that!” he complains, refusing to just take this.

Of course, she didn’t like that very much.

Turning to him, she puts down her drink, back handing him 

“You think you deserve a best friend?! Trash like you?! You don’t deserve anyone! You’re destined to be alone for the rest of your life! Or have you forgotten that?” she says cruelly, looking at him like he was worse than a piece of trash on the side of the street.

Whimpering, Kageyama shakes his head

“No mother, sorry mother” he says quietly, his head hung low. 

Smirking, satisfied at his response, she turns on the TV and picks up her drink again.

Taking that as his dismissal, Kageyama quickly gets up, going into his room and finding Kenma and Hinata curled up together on his bed.

Rolling out the guest futon, Kageyama quickly climbs into it, burying his face in his pillow in an attempt to quieten his sobs.

‘This is all your fault. Of course your mother will never accept this relationship! You’re useless, obviously, she’s always told you that, and it’s always been true! How could you possibly think that they’d accept you? You’re a freak! They don’t even wait up for you, even after seeing you get treated like a slave! They don’t care about you!’

At this point, Kageyama doubted that the pillow was doing much to muffle the sound anymore.

However, what did quieten him a bit, was the sound of movement coming from his bed.

Without turning around, Kageyama feels someone pulling on his arm.

“Kageyama? We tried to stay awake but Kenma was falling asleep and..” Hinata tried to explain, pulling him onto his bed.

 

Snuggling down with him, Kenma moves closer to him on instinct, snuggling into his side.

Hinata, on the other hand, was slowly running his fingers over Kageyama’s bright red cheek.

“Are you okay?” Kageyama asks softly, wrapping his arm around his boyfriend’s waist as he sits up next to him.

Chuckling humorlessly, Hinata shakes his head 

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” he whispers back, looking at him sadly.

Except ‘sadness’ didn’t even begin to cover the emotion that Kageyama saw in Hinata’s eyes.

It was the look of a homeless dog in the rain, as if his whole life had been turned on his head. 

It made him feel lost, so he reached up to grab Hinata’s hand

“I’m fine. It’ll be fine, she’s going home at the end of the week and it’ll be back to normal” he says softly, stroking Hinata’s hand.

“But.. what about next time she comes over? Or when she calls you?” Hinata asks softly, but Kageyama can hear the underlying self consciousness in his words.

“We’ll deal with it then. I’m not leaving you Shouyou. I won’t, not unless you want me to” Kageyama says softly, holding him close.

Hinata leans down, kissing his nose 

“Well, then I guess you’ll be stuck with me forever.” he says softly, lying down next to Kageyama and pulling the covers over the three, Kageyama happily cuddling close with them.

***

A soft shuffling woke up Kageyama, causing him to look around, bleary eyed.

However, the bright piercing rage in his mother’s eyes was quick to wake him up.

“What’s going on here?” she hisses at him, making Kageyama wince and flinch away from her.

And just as he thought things couldn’t get any worse...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO  
> Welcome to the hell of a cliffhanger! Enjoy the week long wait! 
> 
> I hope you 'enjoyed' this weeks' extra long chapter! It's the longest I've written for this fic so far! 
> 
> I also hope you're not too broken yet, but Izuki will be there next chapter and everything will be better <3 promise! 
> 
> I'd appreciate it if you left a comment with your thoughts and feelings about this chapter... I understand they may not be too coherent, but we're almost at the end and I'd really appreciate your thoughts on future fics, and your thoughts on this one! 
> 
> If you're crying, it's okay, we'll get through this together! 
> 
> See you down in the comments! 
> 
> P.S. IF KAGEYAMA AND HINATA'S PARENTS HAVE NAMES I'M SORRY I DON'T KNOW THEM  
> AND NEITHER DOES GOOGLE SO IDK WHAT I'M MEANT TO DO Y_Y I'M SORRY!!


	23. It's not happy, and it's not an ending, but it's the best we've got

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 20/01/16
> 
> There's some serious confrontation  
> But Hinata and Kenma make everything better! 
> 
> And Izuki cause he's a little cutie

Kenma’s woken up by the sound a dull slap. 

He figures it’s Miki walking around in the middle of night and rolls over to snuggle closer to Kageyama.

Except he rolls straight into Hinata. 

He hears another slap. And another. But they’re irregular, and now that he thinks about it, it doesn’t really sound like footsteps..

Sitting up quickly, Kenma looks around in a panic for Kageyama, and, when he can’t see him, he quickly shakes Hinata awake.

“Shouyou? I think Tobio’s in trouble...” he says quietly. 

Being still mostly asleep, Hinata waves him off

“What’re you talking about? He’s right here...” he mumbles, reaching out to where Kageyama had been lying.

However, upon discovering the lack of Kageyama in that spot, he frowns and sits up, lazily opening his eyes and looking at Kenma.

“Maybe he just went to the toilet? It’s not like that’s really cause for any panic Kozume...” he says, but quiets when he hears the slapping sound.

Nodding slightly in acknowledgement of also hearing the sound, Kenma turns to face the door, Hinata losing all his previous sluggishness and getting up, walking over to the door, Kenma close behind him.

Walking quickly and quietly, Hinata and Kenma make their way through the apartment, though they stop when they see the scene in the living room.

***

After finding them all together, Kageyama’s mother pulled him away from the sleeping pair and straight into the living room, where Kageyama had learnt to expect his mother’s temper to run rampant 

Though she didn’t say anything after finding them together, Kageyama knew he was in for a rather violent lecture... he just hoped his boyfriends didn’t wake up and try and get involved. He didn’t know what he’d do if either of them got hurt.

Quickly enough, she threw him onto the ground in front of the TV, standing over him.

“What the hell was that?! Why’re you getting in between their divinely destined love?! That’s not your place Kageyama! Your place is on the court, if that! Your place is NOT between two people so obviously in love as them! That’s not where you should be!” she hissed, punctuating each point with a slap.

But he didn’t say anything, didn’t fight back, didn’t try and tell her what was going on.   
Because she wasn’t listening. She would never listen to him.

And that hurt so much more than the hits.   
The fact that, no matter what, his mother would never listen to him, respect him.  
No matter what choices he made, no matter how he pursued happiness, his mother would never approve of it, would never see him as a person, let alone an equal.

And, as she continued to tell him about his uselessness and his lack of deserving of anything positive in his life, the voice in his head came back.

‘You know everything she’s saying is right Kageyama.   
Why would Oikawa tell her that you were in relationship if he really cared? Why didn’t Kenma and Hinata wake up when she dragged you out if your room if they really cared about you?   
The team doesn’t even like you that much, no team ever has!   
You’re the King of Court, and a king rules alone. You’re alone and there’s no other way it could be! You’re useless at everything that isn’t volleyball!   
How could you possibly think that Kenma could love you, let alone Hinata!   
Kenma, at least, doesn’t see you very often, doesn’t see how useless and terrible you are.   
Hinata though, he knows how useless you are at everything. You wanna know why he stays? He pities you. He thinks of you as nothing more than a pathetic little boy who care barely take care of himself, let alone other people, and because he’s so nice, he helps take care of you.   
Because you’re useless at everything except volleyball.   
It’s the same with the team! The only reason they’re even remotely nice to you is because you’re good at volleyball! If you weren’t do you really think they’d still care? Pfft, of course not!’ the voice tells him.

He tries to ignore it, but how can he with his mother’s voice ringing in his ears, telling him the same stuff?

He doesn’t cry though.  
Crying is a sign of weakness, and in his mother’s eyes he’s weak enough as it is, so who knows what she’d do if he started crying.

As the voice in his head quietens, his attention is forced back to his mother.

“What did you think, huh? That they cared about you? That they wanted to love you? Puh-lease, they just wanted you around as a little entertainment! That’s all.” she says coldly, grabbing his cheeks and forcing him to look at her, a furiously scary grin on her face.

“You’re nothing but a toy to them” she says, throwing him back against the cabinet holding the TV.

Whimpering, Kageyama just stays there like that, just hoping beyond hope that someone would come and help.

‘Not that you deserve it’ says the voice, causing Kageyama to shake a little.

But, of course, without noticing, his magic angels come out from nowhere.

***

“I can’t take it anymore Kenma! We can’t leave him out there with her!” he says quietly, though Kenma can hear the pain in his words 

“Shouyou, what are we going to do? What can we do? Are you saying you think you can take her?” counters Kenma, finding it just as hard to control himself while watching the scene unfold in front of them.

Hinata huffs in frustration but doesn’t move, not taking his eyes off their boyfriend.

Though, Kenma watches a sudden thought break into Hinata’s stubborn brain and watches him get out his phone and furiously type something out. 

Almost immediately the phones buzzes, signifying a reply, causing a smile to light up Hinata’s face, though it quickly falls back in place in the grim circumstances, and he quickly puts his phone away, but this time, Kenma can see Hinata’s eyes glowing.

Though he’s not sure what it is, he knows that Hinata has a plan.

***

Soon enough, her abuse turns (back) to their relationship.

This time, Kenma tries to hold Hinata back, he really does.

But, as the insults pile up, he loses his will to protect her from the undoubted rage he feels building in both Hinata and himself.

As she throws Kageyama back against a cabinet, any self control either had went out the window.

Without talking about it, Hinata immediately moves in between Kageyama and his mother, while Kenma kneels next to Kageyama, trying to bring him back to attention.

Moving Kageyama off the cabinet and into his lap to lean against him, stroking his hair and murmuring his name into his ear, trying to get him to wake up.

Of course, Hinata was nowhere near as level headed.

“Get away from him! How dare you tell him what YOU think about our relationship?! How dare you try and get in the way?!   
This has NOTHING, AT ALL to do with you! Why can’t you just let him be happy?! I love him! Kenma loves him!   
He’s no toy! He’s our boyfriend! He’s someone that I don’t even want to have to wake up without! How dare you say he’s just a toy!” he yells at her, shaking with rage, but controlling himself quite well, all things considered. 

“How could you possibly love something as wrong and disgusting as him?! He’s an abomination! Any relationship of his is just preventing someone else’s happiness! How could you possibl-” she’s cut off by the opening of the front door.

Now, their usually kind hearted senpai are usually the surefire way to put parents at ease.

But they’d heard what she’d said  
They’d heard what she’d said about their overly fragile first year setter.

And they were not happy about it.

Tanaka, Kuroo and Noya lead the entrance, followed by Asahi, Daichi and Suga. 

Now, the usually hyper active trio were scarily calm. 

Asahi and his usual marshmallow tendencies had disappeared, replaced with a harsh look that scared more than half of Japan.

Daichi and Suga were probably the worst.

They looked perfectly normal.

But no, not quite. 

The look in their eyes was slightly too evil to be anything remotely healthily human

And, as they filed into the room, Hinata wasn’t anywhere near finished. 

“How dare you. Though I guess I now understand why Kageyama was one of the most mentally damaged people I know. He was bearing the burden of your failed marriage.   
You couldn’t see anyone else to blame, because, you know, it certainly couldn’t be your fault or anything.   
And then, you picked up on anything even vaguely imperfect about him and made him feel so alone and isolated that he couldn’t possibly do anything.   
And when he found something he could do, you put so much pressure on him that even that crumbled and fell through.” Hinata looked down at her. He’d turned into a quiet type of angry. And honestly, that was so much more terrifying. 

Even the Karasuno boys were scared by it, though they didn’t show it.

And, though she towered over him, Miki felt the pure intimidation and rage radiating off the boy in front of her.   
The ability to be able to anything he wanted to hurt her. And the desire too as well.

“How dare you pretend you know anything about mine and my husband’s relationship! He loved me!   
And then the idiot had to go and find someone without a soul mark!   
He left me, for some cheap whore without a soul mark! I couldn’t let my son be like that!   
I couldn’t let him ruin some happy couple’s happiness like she ruined mine! I couldn’t let it happen!” she says, though at this point, she’s disintegrated into a sobbing mess on the carpet, in the spot in front of Hinata.

Looking down on her like she was the scum of the earth, which, to be fair she was, Hinata shakes his head.

“Tobio’s going to be coming and living with me. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Enjoy the rest of your life Kageyama-san. Or don’t. I don’t really care.” he says coldly. 

Whimpering, she shakes her head, pushing past the boys and storming off into the apartment.

The moment she leaves, the team quickly spring into action.

Hinata’s legs shake and he starts crying, a release of his pent up emotions since he was woken up earlier by Kenma.

“Senpai!” he croaks out, not knowing what else to do and knowing that everyone else is busy with helping Kageyama, and that was fine... but he really just needed a hug right now.

Noya quickly moved forwards and wrapped his arms around Hinata, holding him upright. Hinata clung to him as he sobbed, not knowing what else to do.

Suga and Tanaka run over to Kageyama, who’s still lying against Kenma, barely conscious, though he did hear Hinata’s roast of his mother.

Kenma hadn’t been paying much attention, nuzzling Kageyama neck and stroking his hair, just needing to stay close to him when he was like this.

Suga knelt down and immediately started checking Kageyama’s vitals and, upon finding nothing too abnormal, relaxed a little, leaning back against the cabinet and allowing himself to breathe for the first time since entering the apartment.

Tanaka, on the other hand, wasn’t as calm.

“Hey, Kageyama, come on man, I need you to show me that you’re okay, something.. Come on damn it! You should’ve told me about this.. I thought you trusted me for christs’ sake..” he says, gripping Kageyama’s hand as he clenches his other hand tightly in frustration.

And... no, he wasn’t crying.. He was sweating from his eyes.

Kuroo quickly dropped down next to his boyfriend, once he got over the shock of Hinata’s rant.

He didn’t really know what to do, so he took Tanaka’s hand. And, looking over, he quickly takes Kenma’s hand as well, not really having any comforting words but trying his best to show them both that he’s there.

Kageyama doesn’t respond, but Kuroo can see the pain in the boy’s eyes and knows that this wasn’t easy for him, being cared for.

He also knew that, being the only one not emotionally involved here, he needed to get things organised. 

Squeezing Kenma’s hand and kissing Tanaka’s, Kuroo pulls back and goes over to Daichi and Asahi, who’re standing there, looking just as shell shocked about Hinata’s yelling match.

“H-Hey, so, um, I think we should go get the essentials from Kageyama’s room since no one else in the room really seems.. Up to the job.” Kuroo says awkwardly, hoping he wasn’t being seen as too much of an intruder.

Daichi and Asahi just nod dumbly and start walking down the hall after Kuroo, going into Kageyama’s room and finding basic stuff, like his school and volleyball stuff, as well as his clothes and phone.

It wasn’t much, but it was the best they could do for their kouhai.

***

Soon enough, the three get Kageyama’s stuff packed up into 3 boxes, carrying one each. 

As they walk back out, they find Kageyama curled up with his boyfriend’s on the couch, everyone else scattered around the room in various states of ‘exhausted’.

Kuroo, being the closest to any of the three, goes over and wakes Kenma up, who wakes up easily, turning straight towards him, though not reducing his contact with Kageyama.

“Hey, we packed up everything from Kageyama’s room, thinking you’d want to get out of here as quickly as possible...” he says quietly. 

Kenma nods sleepily and wakes up his sleeping companions.

As little as he knew they’d want to, they had to move to Hinata’s house before Kageyama’s mum woke up again.

And so they began the walk to Hinata’s, which felt longer than they wanted, but shorter than they expected.

***

With lots of bows and awkward shuffling, the boys got the boxes into Hinata’s room as he explained to his parents what’s happened. After calming them down enough, the boys passed out, their senpai’s all going home and leaving them there, with the promise of no practice in the morning.

***

Kageyama wakes up what must be the next day, snuggled into Hinata’s side, both asleep. Looking around, Kageyama tries to work out the noise the woke him up.

Seeing Hinata’s dad put down some water bottle next to the bed, he smiles slightly and tries to move, but Hinata’s hold on him tightens, obviously being protective of him after last time he left a bed with him in it.

Smiling a little, Izuki leans over and kisses his son’s forehead, followed by Kageyama’s, in a sign of love, something Kageyama had never felt from a parent.

Smiling as he watches Izuki close the door carefully, he snuggles back down next to Hinata happily.

***

After a while, Kageyama gets woken up again by his stomach rumbling loudly, and finds that Hinata had been replaced with Kenma, not that he was complaining.

Looking over, he sees some sandwiches on the bedside table with his name on them. 

Shifting a little to reach one, he wakes up Kenma, who smiles at him and sits up with him, snuggling into his side sleepily.

It’s not that he didn’t love normal Kenma.   
He did.  
But oh god, sleepy Kenma was actually his favourite thing in the world.

Wrapping his arm around Kenma’s waist, Kageyama grabs the plate of sandwiches and starts eating them quietly.

***

Not too long after, Hinata comes into the room happily and sits opposite them, and though he’s smiling, Kageyama can tell he’s nervous.  
But he doesn’t say anything.

“Idiot. I can’t put you at ease if you don’t ask about whatever’s bothering you” he says quietly, finishing off the sandwitches.

Swallowing, Hinata looked at him 

“Um, w-well.. I just wanted to know why you didn’t tell us about your mother?” he asks shyly, but looking in Kageyama’s eyes, not willing to back down on this.

Kageyama shook his head, not really wanting to talk about it.

“I-I just... I didn’t feel like you would really care about it..” he says softly, looking at his hands.

He watches as Kenma’s hand is placed on top of his, calming down the nervous movement in them.

“And, why did you think that?” he asks softly, rubbing soothing circles on the backs of his hands.

Kageyama shrugs in answer.

Sighing, Kenma looks at him 

“Come on Tobio, you’re the one who said that we had to communicate.” he tells him, looking at him.

Sighing, Kageyama’s shoulders slouch.

“I-I just... I was worried that if I told you everything she told me.. That you’d agree” he says, gradually getting quieter, talking barely above a whisper “That you’d leave me” 

He practically hears Hinata and Kenma’s hearts break.

“And.. I didn’t want to tell anyone else.. Or it would make it real. It would mean that I’d actually have to deal with it.   
That I couldn’t just put up with it.   
Other people would know, and I’d have to do something about it. I couldn’t just keep going like this, and deal with it.   
I’d have to change something to do with my relationship with her.. But she’s my mother, no matter what she does... and I can’t help but still care for her..” he says quietly, shaking slightly as he tells them this.

Kenma snuggles closer to him, trying to keep him calm, while Hinata moves closer to him, sitting in his lap.

They sit there quietly for a minute

“I’m sorry then Tobio.. But I couldn’t let you keep trying to live like that. And I’m not letting you go back, no matter what you say.. I’m sorry if that’s selfish but... I couldn’t possibly let you go back after that.” Hinata says softly, nuzzling his boyfriend’s chest and snuggling close to him.

Kageyama, in turn, nuzzles Hinata’s hair with a small nod.

“And.. I wouldn’t have it any other way” he says softly, kissing Hinata’s hair.

Smiling, Hinata and Kenma snuggle close to their boyfriend.

This quickly escalates into soft, caring kisses exchanged between the three, and honestly, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

***

It could’ve been minutes, it could’ve been hours, later that the boys ventured downstairs. 

Kenma happily holds Kageyama’s hand as they follow the boundless ball of energy that was Hinata, downstairs.

Going into the kitchen, they find Izuki and Moeka cooking something.

Kageyama feels a pang in his chest, seeing the happy family. He feels like he’s intruding.

This, of course, isn’t helped by the fact he remembers nothing after passing out the night before, not remembering Hinata’s offer to move in with him.

This triggers Kageyama to start panicking. 

What about when he had to go home? How would his mother react? What would she do? He didn’t want to go, he felt like this place would be so much better a place to live in... how could he possibly not?

Kenma had started to notice his boyfriend’s stiffness, but, just as he was going to say something, Kageyama quickly ran off, bolting off to the bathroom and locking the door before anyone else could react.

Blinking, Kenma and Hinata rush over to the door.

“Tobio? Tobio, what’s wrong?” Hinata says in confusion, hitting his hand against the door.

“Tobio? Can you please tell me what’s wrong?” Kenma says as well, feeling fear and worry set in his stomach.

***

Kageyama couldn’t even hear his boyfriend’s, too caught up in his panic.

He couldn’t go back. He wouldn’t. 

No one could expect him too. 

They just couldn’t.

This is when he started hyperventilating, not knowing how he was going to deal with this.

He would hope that Hinata’s parents would take him in but.. They probably didn’t like him very much. 

‘I mean, really, who would though?’ says the voice in his head, goading on his panic.

But a calm, collected voice cuts through the blind panic that Kageyama feels himself drowning in.

“Kageyama? Kageyama, can you open the door for me please?” Kageyama hears, but it’s like an out of body experience.   
He can hear Izuki talking calmly, and he can feel himself reach up and open the door, but he does it without any conscious thought.

Izuki slowly moves into the bathroom, locking the door.

He quickly takes note on Kageyama’s overly panicked state and kneels in front of him, Kageyama leaning against the sink and sobbing while hyperventilating. 

“Kageyama, I need you to breathe with me okay? Just like this” says Izuki, taking deep, over exaggerated breaths to try and calm Kageyama’s breathing “Can you do that for me please Kageyama?” he asks softly, continuing to take slow, deep breaths. 

Kageyama slowly starts to copy Izuki and, though he’s sometimes interrupted by a sob, his breathing eventually evens out.

“Kageyama, can you tell me what happened?” he asks softly, looking at him. 

Kageyama shrugs slightly and looks at his hands.

“I-I was just thinking about how n-nice your family is and ho-how much I don’t w-want to go b-b-back to m-mine” he replies, stuttering as tears run down his cheeks again.

Gently putting his hands over Kageyama’s, Izuki watches him with a soft, ghost of a smile.

“And why do you think you’ll be going back there?” he asks quietly, watching the boy as his head shoots up to look at him   
“We’re more than happy to take you in, in fact, we wouldn’t let you go back, even if you begged us.” he says quietly, watching Kageyama stare at him with big eyes.

“So you don’t need to worry about that. Or scare anyone with running out like that, okay?” he says softly, with a quiet chuckle as he’s met with a tight hug from the usually stoic boy.

After a minute of quieting the boy, Izuki pulls back a little  
“What do you say to going back out there? I know for a fact that your boyfriend’s are really worried about you” he says quietly.

Kageyama nods slightly and, after a minute, he lets go of him and dries his tears, moving out to unlock the door, finding his boyfriends sitting together beside the door snuggled together nervously.

Upon the opening of the door, both boys look up and their faces light up, scrambling to hug their boyfriend.

“Let’s move to the couch, it’ll be more comfy..” Kageyama says softly, and his boyfriends are only to eager to do so after sitting on the ground for so long, quickly moving with Kageyama over to the couch and snuggling up together.

Izuki leans against the doorframe with a smile as he watches the three.

Moeka comes over at some point

“How is he?” she asks quietly, looking up at her husband. 

He shrugs slightly in response  
“He’s about what I expected from what Hinata told us. He’ll have episodes like that fairly frequently.. But they’ll fade, and he’ll be fine.” he says, smiling but not taking his eyes off the boys “But he’ll need all the love and stability he can possibly get over the coming years.” he says, grinnning.

Moeka smiles, looking over at the boys.

“I get the feeling neither of those things are going to be in short supply” she says as Izuki wraps his arm around his wife’s shoulder.

“It’s funny, I get the same feeling” he says back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING!!
> 
> This is the last real chapter of this fic!  
> There's an epilogue that I'll be posting in the next few days and I'll do my wrap up note then
> 
> But for now, I hope you enjoyed this fic!
> 
> Please let me know down in the comments if there are any spin off fics you'd like me to do, like a Kuroo/Tanaka (which some people have been requesting!)
> 
> If not, please leave any future fic requests!  
> Non-withstanding requests here, I'll be writing a Free! Reigisa fic after this!
> 
> I'll see you guys at the end of the epilouge guys!   
> I'm so glad you've all stuck with me this long <3 thanks guys, I honestly can't tell you how much you mean to me <3


	24. 3 Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Published 22/01/17
> 
> 3 years later, Kageyama reflects on how far his life's come
> 
> (this was meant to be a short little thing but it ended up being just as long as a normal chapter O.o )

3 years later

Kageyama didn’t think that he could ever really get tired of waking up like this.

Kenma was curled up against his front, Kageyama’s arms holding him close as he nuzzled his hair.

If he could, he would wake up like this every day.

And, as luck might have it, he could.

After his third year, both him and Hinata had been scouted and invited to Tokyo Uni.

Of course, they accepted.  
But, luckily for them, it’s the same place as Kenma had been accepted into.

Obviously, they moved in together, into a spacious 1 bedroom apartment and paid minimal rent.

And so, Kageyama had woken up to this blonde mess in his face every morning, and he had no complaints.

Hinata would usually be on the other side of Kenma, but today the poor sucker had early morning classes.

Not that Kageyama was really complaining, he was quite content snuggling with his little kitten.

Kenma, finely attuned to his boyfriends as he was, woke up not a minute later, stretching like a cat and causing Kageyama to chuckle and kiss him.

“Morning kitten” he says softly, stroking Kenma’s hair off his forehead with a smile. 

Kenma vaguely nodded at him and Kageyama had expected nothing else.  
Kenma wasn’t really much of a morning person, and that was fine.

Kageyama leaned down and kissed his boyfriend’s forehead, before pulling away to go make coffee, but apparently Kenma had other plans as he pulled him back down to lie next to him.

Chuckling, Kageyama didn’t fight his boyfriend and easily lies next to him with a smile.

Not knowing what Kenma wanted, Kageyama settled for just stroking his hair, like one would a cat.

Honestly, Kageyama wouldn’t trade this feeling, right now, for anything.

But, of course, what kind of world would it be if this snuggling wasn’t interrupted by memories.

Snuggling close, he remembered how he’d gotten here.

He remembered the intense support he’d needed to go through with the restraining order and acquisition of monetary compensation for the abuse she inflicted on him.

He thought about all that time he spent with Hinata and his family, to the point when he was just one of them, just another part of the family. It was honestly the best thing that he’d ever experienced.  
A loving accepting home. It was fantastic.

Kenma was the one who shook him out of this pleasant reflection of life post-mother.

Looking at him, Kageyama yawned softly  
“Yes kitten?” he asked quietly, and saw the blush on his cheeks, one he would never get tired of putting there.

“It’s been about half an hour and I’m getting kinda hungry..” Kenma explained.

Now, if it were anyone else, Kageyama would’ve told them to go cook for themself.  
However, Kenma was worse than hopeless in the kitchen.

After the first few pots he destroyed while trying to make noodles, he’d been banned from cooking in the kitchen, bar making coffee.

Getting up, Kageyama went into the kitchen, but instead of making something, he smiles, finding Hinata’s homemade onigiri sitting on the bench, wrapped up on a plate.

God, he loved his boyfriends.

***

Kenma didn’t have any classes today, and Kageyama only had one, but he was meeting Oikawa and Iwaizumi for lunch.

Kissing Kenma goodbye and telling him to not spend all day playing games, he leaves, going downstairs and to the local campus coffee shop.

Walking in, he immediately notices Oikawa and Iwaizumi sitting in their usual corner.

However, he also notices that his senpai’s usual aloofness is absent.

Kageyama quickly moves over to the pair, sitting opposite them.

Oikawa looked like he’d barely gotten any sleep, and Iwaizumi didn’t look much better, though he was holding both of Oikawa’s hands.

Without asking, Kageyama knew what was wrong.  
This’d happened a few times already this year.

After moving in with Hinata, Kageyama had called Oikawa and told him what’d happened.  
Of course, being Oikawa, he’d immediately blamed himself. 

And, apparently, he still hadn’t gotten over it.

“Senpai?” Kageyama asked quietly, looking straight at Oikawa.

“I’m sorry Tobio-chan!” he wailed. Anyone else might think that he was being dramatic, but Kageyama had known him long enough to know that this was him being sincere. “I’m so sorry about everything that I’ve ever done that’s hurt you Tobio-chan! I never wanted to - “ he interupts himself with a sob “to see you hurt! I just.. Can’t forgive myself for putting you through.. All of that.. You must hate me!” he finishes 

After running away to Hinata’s place, Kageyama had told Oikawa about everything that’d happened, all of it.  
And Oikawa couldn’t stop blaming himself.

“Senpai. Look at me.” he instructs, waiting patiently for him to do so, and then continuing “If I hated you, I wouldn’t come here every week and sit down and talk to you. If I hated you, I wouldn’t put up with your texts every time Iwaizumi does something you class as ‘cute’. If I hated you, I wouldn’t call you every time Hinata or Kenma did something to make me freak out.” he says, wanting to hold one of his hands and reassure his senpai, but not being sure if that would help or not.

“But I do come here every week. And I do laugh at some of the funny texts you send me. And I do call you every time Hinata or Kenma do something unbearably cute.” he says softly, looking at Oikawa.

“I don’t hate you senpai, I promise.” he finishes, smiling at his senpai. 

Being the mess that he was, Oikawa launched himself at his kouhai, hugging him and babbling about how he’d never do anything bad ever again.

Kageyama just chuckled and smiles at Iwaizumi, who looked very relieved about this, no matter how often it happened, it always nagged at him that Kageyama could break Oikawa with but a few words.

But he’d never said them, and for Iwaizumi, that made him okay.

***

After another emotional reunion, Kageyama had class.  
At the moment we was working on going pro, but for now he was studying sports science.

After class he got a text from Tanaka, asking him to come to a small bar they frequented, not that he drank, but his friends did, and it was always at least a little entertaining. 

It was a bit odd to be invited there in the middle of the day, but he shrugged it off, putting it down to his friend’s drinking habits.

Turning up, he noticed there was no where near as many cars around as there usually were. Dismissing this, he quickly opened the door, finding Tanaka standing there with a grin and a blindfold.

“Put this on” Tanaka said, holding it out to him.

Kageyama eyed the fabric suspiciously 

“Hello to you too..” he says quietly, taking the fabric and typing it over his eyes.  
He’d learnt to go along with Tanaka’s weird ideas at this point.

Grabbing his hand, Tanaka instantly started leading him into what he recognised as the main body of the bar. 

Walking in, he was surprised to hear the echo of their footsteps on the floor.

At what seemed seemed like a random point, Tanaka suddenly stopped.

“Wait right here!” he said before turning and walking away.

Standing and waiting patiently, Kageyama sighed, wanting to just get this over with.

He was not however, expecting his orange haired, human ball of sunshine boyfriend to come up and jump on him.

Somehow not falling over, he catches his boyfriend, laughing softly as he takes his blindfold off. 

Looking around for the first time, he notices that he’s not, as he originally thought, alone in the room.

He sees Tanaka and Kuroo controlling themselves, only standing there with a hand in the other’s back pocket, which is extremely subdued for them.

He sees Kenma standing next to them, playing around on his PSP, but Kageyama could tell that it was nervous playing instead of bored playing.

However, he also noticed various people from high school, like Daichi and Suga, and Noya and Asahi. Ennoshita and a few other no name second years. 

“H-Happy 3 year anniversary...” Kenma said, coming up to him and Hinata while looking at the floor.

“I...I totally forgot” he says quietly, looking down at him.

Everyone laughs at him 

“Yeah, we figured. But that’s okay. Cause we’ll always be here to remind you” Hinata says with a smirk, kissing his cheek.

Laughing, Daichi walks over 

“You know, we sometimes used to joke that us crows already knew how to fly. Most of us had found our soul mates, or we were content with life. But before you guys came along, the crows were failing, we couldn’t even get off the around. Because we had each other we were happy. However, you guys came along, your broken, lovable selves. And you didn’t know how to accept love, but sure as hell knew how to soar when it came to volleyball. And, at least I like to think, that our team have helped you guys learn to fly, no matter how long it took.” 

Kageyama and Hinata were stunned.

“Daichi! Come back here! We’re cutting the cake!” Suga called out, pulling him away.

Kageyama, Kenma and Hinata just looked at each other, grinning.

Because maybe they were a bit broken.

And maybe they had some baggage.

But they were crows.

And they’d, finally, learnt to fly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (this is gonna be a long one, I'm sorry, but not really) 
> 
> And with that, this fic draws to a conclusion
> 
> BUT HAVE NO FEAR NOR TEAR, FOR THIS IS NOT TRUELY THE END, BUT A NEW BEGINNING
> 
> For the best things must have an end for them to be properly appriciated.
> 
> I know this probably isn't the best fic you've ever read, but I hope that you at least enjoyed it! <3 And I know you'll miss it, cause I will too! 
> 
> I'm.. just not sure what to say! I don't want to finish this note, because then it will really be over.. and I don't think I'm quite ready for that :( 
> 
> HOWEVER  
> THIS IS NOT THE END OF THIS FIC, OR ME  
> I will always ALWAYS be down in the comments!  
> No matter if you read this the day it comes out, or 3 years from now! I WILL BE THERE FOR ALL YOUR COMPLAINTS, COMPLEMENTS AND CONCERNS!! 
> 
> On that note, I'm kinda nervous about how this is going to be received so please, don't hesitate to leave your thoughts and feelings down in the comments! I always love to hear from you guys, no matter what you have to say! 
> 
> Next Friday [now probably the Friday after because of the end of summer holidays], I'll be starting my Reigisa [slight] AU fic (I dunno what the title will be yet :/ ) {TITLE STATUS UPDATE: Not everybody can be a genius, but maybe you can be mine} so keep an eye out for that! 
> 
> There will also be a Tanaka/Kuroo side fic occuring at some point, though it won't be as big as this one (probably) and will be on the same plot as this fic, just expanding on the chapters when the pair are away from out protaganists! 
> 
>  
> 
> And with that, I bring this fic to a close  
> I hope you've enjoyed it, and I hope to see you down in the comments section, or even better, in the comments section on my next fic!!  
> <3 
> 
> (What? These aren't tears... I'm just sweating from my eyes...)


	25. NEW FIC PREVIEW

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nagisa, Makoto and Haru are a part of a vocaliod club and need a fourth member..  
> .. and the boy playing on his phone during track and field practice might just be the one they need

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Published: 10/4/2017  
> The intro to my new Nagisa/Rei centered fic, in which swimming is replaced by vocaliod (music rhythm) games

“DAMN IT” was the first thing they heard as they entered the now abandoned classroom they call their clubroom.

Turning into the room, Makoto looks at Nagisa in empathy. 

It was the same as it always was at the start of the year.   
In middle school everyone signed for their club because it was something to do after school. But the moment they hit high school everyone suddenly left, fun taking a back seat, everyone focused on studies or sports and every year they had to go through the same deal of finding a fourth member who would be a part of the club in name only.

Now Nagisa, he was generally pretty laid back, cute and pretty eccentric, but when it came to his club, there was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep it going. Walking in, Haru and Makoto saw him standing by the window, watching the track and field team practice.

Makoto and Haru took their usual seats, in other words, Makoto behind a desk and Haru in his lap. 

“I don’t think we’ll make it this year” Nagisa mumbles, not moving his eyes from the practice going on beneath them.

A sombre feeling settled around the trio, Makoto nuzzling Haru’s side as Nagisa leaned further toward the window, watching the people below them.

The feeling suddenly changed, Nagisa transforming from his sombre, serious mood into his bouncy, eccentric self and shooting out of the door.

Frowning, Makoto looked at Haru who was smirking   
“What’s all that about?” he asks, confused about their president’s sudden exit.   
Getting up, Haru pointed out the window to the boy sitting at the edge of practice playing a vocaloid game on his phone. 

Makoto grinned and the pair followed their president to go and harass their soon-to-be, extremely reluctant 4th member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe...
> 
> HEY EVERYBODY  
> SORRY I HAVEN'T DONE THIS YET BUT SCHOOL STARTED AND I'VE BARELY HAD TIME TO BREATHE SINCE   
> As most of you know, I planned out a new Nagisa/Rei fic, however I haven't got around to writing it until right now!  
> This is the start of the first chapter  
> The rest of the first chapter, as well as all future chapters can be found here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10578822/chapters/23377746  
> Hope to see you there!

**Author's Note:**

> HI THERE!  
> I'm kinda new to writing multi-chapter fics, so please don't hate me too much!  
> Updates are every Friday, unless under special circumstances  
> I hope you stick with me for this angsty, fluffy journey <3
> 
> Also, THIS IS UNBEAT'D!! Sorry for any mistakes in the first few days, but I usually post it and then, a few days later, read through, so if there are any errors, I'll try and fix them then!
> 
> If you want to contact me (to talk or anything really!), find me on tumblr here: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/everyfandomlife


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